| Navy serviceman returns from Middle East, greets son at school
HOBART | Joe Negron and his 7-year-old son, Nicholas, wore matching smiles Tuesday as the two were reunited after nearly eight months."It's great to be back," beamed Joe Negron, a Navy serviceman who completed his fourth tour of duty in the Persian Gulf on Friday.Joe Negron's visit to John Wood Elementary School at the end of the day was done to surprise Nicholas, a second-grader, who hadn't seen his father since June."It's super Tuesday for the Negron boys," quipped Cheryl Negron, Nicholas' mother.Joe Negron couldn't fly into Chicago Midway Airport on Monday night as planned because of the fog, said Maryann Reynolds, Cheryl Negron's mother.But Joe Negron arrived in the area Tuesday morning and wanted to surprise his oldest son, who had been bummed out by the delay, she said.The surprise was a hit with Nicholas, who couldn't stop looking at his father and giving him an occasional hug."It's awesome," Nicholas said of his father's return.Cheryl Negron and her sons, Nicholas and Michael, 4, have been staying with her parents, Maryann and Gordon Reynolds, who live in rural Crown Point.The Reynolds family moved there from Lansing, where Cheryl Negron attended high school."This is a wonderful thing," Maryann Reynolds said while videotaping the father-and-son reunion.In coming days, the Negron family plans to get reacquainted by dining out at Joe's favorite pizza place, the Home Run Inn in Chicago, and hanging out at home playing video games.Cheryl Negron said family members have a lot of catching up to do since they didn't spend Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year's together."This is very surreal.
Oscar and Hollywood in splitsville!
In years gone by, this generally took the form of disdainful cinephiles bemoaning the Academy's atrocious taste. ("Ordinary People" wins over "Raging Bull"! "Dances With Wolves" wins over "GoodFellas"! Yul Brynner wins over Olivier! And so on.) More recently, we've heard the inverse of that criticism, in which the Oscars have become an inward-looking, bicoastal-elite, anti-populist celebration of arty niche movies that no regular folks out there in cud-munching middle America have actually seen. You know, weird obscurities like "The Departed," "Chicago," "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," "A Beautiful Mind" and "Gladiator" -- all of them 21st-century best-picture winners, with a cumulative $1 billion-plus in domestic ticket sales. .
Web services slash CO2 emissions
The savings come through a reduced need for people to travel to council offices to make enquiries or submit paperwork, or for staff to move between locations. If the figure is scaled up for the rest of the country, it would mean a reduction in CO2 emissions of 14,000 tonnes per year, equivalent to 5,362 return flights from Heathrow to Malaga in Spain. The research is based on data supplied by Sunderland City Council relating to web services for planning, schools admission, registrars' certificates, environmental service enquiries and council tax payments. In addition, the reduction in CO2 due to the web services is significantly higher than the extra CO2 generated by the increased server requirements. Parmjit Dhanda, minister for e-government, said people should be encouraged to talk to their local authority via the web due to these benefits.
S.F. Police Blotter: Neighborhood crime log
These are excerpts from the San Francisco Police Department's daily log of activities. Incidents are listed by police precincts and the neighborhoods they patrol. Bayview Bayview Hunters Point They went that way: Officers were flagged down by a victim of a robbery Dec. 19. The victim told the officers that he was just robbed at gunpoint and that the suspects were still nearby. The officers found the three suspects. Not only did the officers locate the stolen money, but they also recovered the gun used in the robbery. Bus money: Officers responded to the Transbay Terminal on a report of a robbery Dec. 22. When the officers arrived, they found a victim with cuts and abrasions all over his face. The victim told the officers he was waiting for the bus when he was approached by the suspect, who beat him and took his money.
Airfares from USA to Europe Rise with Fuel Costs
An analysis for USA TODAY of ticket sales through Sabre, the world's largest distribution system, shows that the average price paid through Jan. 31 for U.S.-Europe air travel in April or May was 6.9% higher than during the comparable periods in 2007. The analysis looked at round-trip sales regardless of fare categories. Travelers are paying those higher prices despite a 10.3% expansion of trans-Atlantic flying capacity by the airlines. Typically, when the supply of a product rises, prices rise little, if at all. Delta Air Lines, which has more service across the Atlantic than any other U.S. carrier, increased trans-Atlantic capacity 15.5% over the past year. The airline, for example, added several routes linking its Atlanta base to Vienna, Prague and other European cities.
Wilco leaves 'em wanting more
Sport has its decathlon. Kobayashi has his hot dogs. Part endurance test and part gluttonous buffet, Wilco's just-completed five-show run at the Riviera Theater might be the closest analog in rock. By the numbers, the Chicago band's five gigs in six nights featured sprawling sets of more than 30 songs each. .
Taming Hell's Kitchen
THE CHEF: Gordon Ramsay is the only chef in London to hold three Michelin stars, with his eponymous flagship restaurant in the city's affluent Chelsea neighborhood. His empire spans Japan, Dubai and the U.S., where he has three restaurants including at New York's London hotel, which was recently awarded two Michelin stars. KNOWN FOR: Mr. Ramsay has made a name for himself serving up modern British-French cuisine. But the former professional soccer player has established a reputation among a much wider audience as a fiery-tempered, foul-mouthed chef through his reality cooking television shows. At home, however, he emphasizes the importance of social skills with his four children (who range in age from 6 to 9 years of age) by regularly sitting down with them to Sunday lunch. Mr. Ramsay, who grew up with the family-lunch tradition, sees it as an important ritual for his children to learn manners as well as discuss anything that has upset them.
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