Article & Journal Resources

By Musong R. Castillo

BANGKOK, Thailand--The key to success, it seems, does not lie in preparations made at home.

Swimming, the biggest contributor to the Philippines' meager gold medal cache, drew its strength from tankers who trained in the United States.

Together, they put away all the RP team's gold medals in the pool at the just-concluded 24th Southeast Asian Games in faraway Nakhon Ratchasima province.

Eight of the paltry 41 golds won by the country in the 11-nation, biennial conclave came from the sport, with Miguel Molina winning three titles and sharing in the victory of a relay quartet.

Molina, the 23-year-old who holds a degree in human relations from the University of California at Berkeley, has trained in the US ever since the Philippine Amateur Swimming Association plucked him from age-group competitions early in his career.

He became the saving grace for the battered RP delegation at the Games by winning the Most Valuable Player (male) award, the third such time the prestigious citation has been bestowed on a Filipino.

The two others who won the plum were also swimmers--Eric Buhain in 1991 and Akiko Thomson in 1989.

"We make sure that they (RP swimmers) become good enough to be offered scholarships in the US, so they can train there," Mark Joseph, also a former national swimmer and now president of the Pasa, said.

"With that, we know that they are in good hands. We simply don't have the technology that they have there [in the US]," added Joseph, also the deputy secretary-general of the Philippine Olympic Committee.

Asked why only the Fil-Americans in the team shone for the Philippines, Joseph said his charges were all pure Filipinos.

He said the gold medalists were "100 percent Filipinos who just happened to be born somewhere else and then trained in the US because that is the Mecca of swimming."

"I trained in the US, so did Ral [Rosario] and Eric [Buhain], but we were never called Fil-Ams," Joseph explained.

Singapore, which pipped the Philippines for fifth overall and sealed the worst RP finish ever in the games, also trains its finest swimmers abroad.

"What we have achieved--a big number of silver and bronze medals--tells us that they (opponents) prepared better than we did," Philippine Sports Commissioner chair William "Butch" Ramirez said.

Not only did Molina--who was born in Japan to Filipino parents-- Ryan Arabejo, JB Walsh and Daniel Coakley win gold medals in the SEAG, they are now all going to the Olympics in Beijing next year.

"We know that we can compete in the world level," said Joseph. "What we really need is to fund these people because their scholarships don't cover their travel expenses."

Joseph said that he had written the PSC at least three times to fund Molina's training for the Beijing Olympics, which costs about $3,000 (about P123,000) a month.

Molina has left school and now needs to enter a personal training program under renowned swim coach Dave Salo.

The Pasa president is hopeful that someone from the private sector would step forward and foot Molina's bill.

Coakley, the 6-foot-1, 17-year-old great grandson of two-time Olympic bronze medalist Teofilo Yldefonso, was the fastest man in the pool after shattering the SEAG's 50-meter freestyle mark.

He plans to move out of Hawaii to train and study, along with Arabejo, at Bolles school and be under the guidance of Sergio Lopez, the former Olympic gold medalist from Spain.


Copyright 2007 Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Poached zebras and exploding turkeys. Four Melbourne foodies regale David Sutherland with their favourite festive flops.

NDUTU Safari Lodge sits in the heart of the Serengeti Plain in northern Tanzania. Tourists visit the remote cluster of thatched buildings to watch the abundant wildlife. In 1996, a young Anthony Herzog was helping his father, a tour guide and part-time chef at the lodge, prepare Christmas dinner.

"It was traditional to roast an eland (large antelope) or impala for the 40 or so guests," says Herzog, former sommelier at Richmond's Pearl and currently front of house manager at Seamstress in the city. "But that year my father decided to serve some of the local freshwater crayfish."

Herzog and his father spent several days catching the crays, eventually filling three 44-gallon drums with the big red crustaceans. They added freshwater to help the crays survive and purge their systems of mud.

"We told the guests to look forward to fresh crayfish and there was quite a bit of anticipation building," he says. "The trouble was, one evening just before Christmas we got back from a tour to find the African workers at the lodge, who we'd asked to look after the crayfish, had misinterpreted our instruction."

The three drums were bubbling away merrily on open fires with the crayfish inside: the workers had thought they were helping by cooking the crayfish for dinner that night. Herzog's father, a former big-game hunter, snuck away from the camp early the next day, far enough for the gunshot not to wake the sleeping guests.

"We ended up serving zebra," says Herzog, quietly pointing out that zebra is protected in Tanzania. "We told them it was beef. And by the looks on their faces as they chewed away at this stuff instead of crayfish, they thought it was the worst beef ever."

Most hospitality staff who've worked on Christmas Day have a horror story or two to tell.

Peter McLeod, known to many as the godfather of modern pub dining, and who recently took over the culinary reins at the Empyre Hotel in Castlemaine, had run the kitchen at the Hotel Spencer for three years before opening on Christmas Day for the first time. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, a staff member, about to leave the Spencer's employ, decided to have a prank at the hotel's expense and didn't write down a number of large bookings for Christmas lunch. One hundred and twenty-eight people turned up to a 90-seat venue expecting a meal.

What will you call someone who is gorgeously beautiful and astoundingly talented?


Call her Nandana Sen, the daughter of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen. The day she set her foot in Bollywood with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Black, the whole of the Bollywood was enamoured by her endearing performance! KT caught up with the lady in a chin wag.

How will you describe yourself?

Hmm I am a clumsy, passionate, loyal, curious, and argumentative person.

And what interests does this curious lady have?

Well, I just love poetry, Tagore songs, Jazz music, watching old films, animals and having chocolates.

Was there ever any pressure from your family to get into a different career, say academics? How do they feel about you working in films?

I’ve always been an excellent student throughout my academic career. So my career choice was a surprise to my parents - especially since I was a shy and geeky little girl. But they always knew how crazy I was about cinema! Now they’ve come to terms with it. They in fact are proud that I chose to do something different.

How does it feel being a Nobel laureate’s daughter? And was it easy for you to establish yourself as an actor on that basis?

I’m immensely proud of my father. But no, his stature doesn’t help me at all. On the contrary, the industrywallas were surprised to see a girl like me, who hails from such an educated family, get into films.

Are you happy with what Bollywood is offering you?

I’m happy with the variety of roles that I’ve portrayed till now. Since I’ve never played it safe in choosing my roles, I am offered all kinds of roles. My priority is to do what I’m best at but don’t get me wrong.

You have done a very bold scene in your recently released film. Were you comfortable doing it?
(Smiles) It’s funny how we’ve all become used to euphemisms, isn’t it? By our terminology, no films would be ‘bolder’ than pornography! Acting is by requirement a bold profession what can be bolder than baring your heart and soul to the world? As a professional actor, I have no issues being bold in every way. And if you think this one is bold, watch out for my films that are slated to release shortly.

As an actor you have a variety on your professional platter. Have you planned a future strategy for your career?

No, my decisions are always emotional, not strategic. I need to fall in love with a story immediately to say yes to a film. My only strategy is to avoid imitations I’m allergic to films or characters that are a copy of others, including my own.

But do you wish to portray any specific role?

I’m terribly drawn to classical characters. I’d love to play Draupadi, Cleopatra, Shakuntala, Ophelia, Medea, Vasantasena, Portia and Electra.

What is the best compliment that you have ever received?
I once played a victim of child sexual abuse in a play. After the show got over, a girl embraced me, sobbing, and she said after watching my performance; for the first time in her life she was able to speak about her own abuse by her uncle. Apparently, watching me was like looking at her on stage she felt every emotion was so real that it was just like her own story. What can be a bigger compliment than that?

What is your take on casting couch?
(Giggles)Oh! come on, no one gets cast out of a couch these days! Too much is at stake, filmmakers are hungry for talent and not flesh. But yes, you may get cast out of movies sometimes if you don’t couch your terms agreeably!

From an early age, I can distinctly remember being fascinated by different cultures and faiths, and the many similarities and connections between each. I would spend hours tucked away on a bay window in my school library, on my ‘amazing quest to discover the truth’.

Looking back, it is clear the appeal of inter-faith and youth community work for me stemmed from my desire to fit into a world that didn’t understand my own cultural and faith background. When I changed schools, I remember signing a statement agreeing to participate in the school’s Church of England services, school assemblies and so forth. I remember my mother that day, giving me a classic piece of Hindu philosophy based upon a simple analogy: if God resides at the summit of a mountain, all paths to the top are equal as they reach the same destination.

My inter-faith work has, and I hope will, keep enlightening me. Recently we at the Hindu Council have been supporting the Burmese Buddhist monks by keeping vigil, protesting and campaigning. In conversation one night with a Burmese student, as we sat in our tent across from Parliament, I was truly humbled and inspired, in a way that only someone who has experienced atrocities and forgiven them can instil such an array of emotions and hope.

A fortnight ago the Children’s Commissioner organised the ‘11 million Takeover Day’. I spent the day at the Ministry of Justice mentoring inner city London children from all backgrounds, the purpose of which was to encourage engagement and understanding of the democratic process. Future projects I aim to help organise are orientated around using the arts to elevate inter-faith and cross-cultural dialogue and understanding.

With the festive season upon us, I find it disheartening when I hear of Scrooge-like behaviour. Christmas is one of my favourite times of the year. Bizarrely, this sometimes surprises people. It seems quite simple to me, there are some things about this time of year that transcend the religious construct: family gatherings, the feeling of community and, at the risk of sounding much like a Miss World contestant, a time of the year when we contemplate and appreciate all that we have.

Being brought up in England, that time for introspection has naturally been Christmas. If I had been born elsewhere it would inevitably be another festival involving similar principles.

I think it is fear of losing some misplaced notion of preserving one's identity that stops some people from learning about other faiths and cultures. For me extracting parallels creates an invisible way within me to feel closer to humanity, in a world where alas people are increasingly becoming more isolationist. We are all connected more than we think, if one simply took the time to look to the substance rather than solely the form.

Recently a good friend recounted a conversation that she had had with her parents about me. The discussion had led to a point where she claimed she didn’t have any Indian friends, to which her mother replied ‘Well, what about Deepti?’

My friend went on to explain, in a way that to me is reminiscent of a rare childlike obliviousness towards race and creed, that she just had not really seen me as specifically Indian, although obviously she knows that I am and what that means to me.

This is the very same woman, who claims she isn’t that culturally aware. I beg to differ. I only wish more people looked at each other the way she sees me, with no labels or preconceptions, just the individual as they are. That to me is the whole point of inter-faith and inter-community work, indeed of being human.

Guy Grieve and his family explore the Dutch Antilles as their Caribbean voyage moves through the gears.

# Guy Grieve's previous column
# Caribbean booking guide

It was midnight and time to go. With something approaching reverence, we flicked on the spreader lights, followed by the instruments that would tell us our heading, speed and depth. We then switched the internal lighting to red, which ensures that night vision is not reduced when you move from wheel to chart table and back again, as well as being more considerate to the sleeping members of the party. As we slipped the mooring, I let a warm breeze blow our boat, the Forever, backwards before turning the wheel and moving slowly off into the night.

The first stage of our journey would take us along the south coast of Bonaire, in the Dutch Antilles, where we would be sheltered from the full force of the sea before heading out to the open ocean. Our first destination would be Islas de Aves, 50 miles east of Bonaire, and we expected the journey to take around 10 hours. By setting off at this time we were ensuring that we would arrive in good light, which is essential when navigating these shallow coral islands.

Down below, the boys were in their cabin fast asleep, as was Juliet, who would be taking the "graveyard" watch from 4am until 8am. We passed out of the lee of the island and, as if at the flick of a switch, the state of the sea was transformed.

With the wind against the current, it was tumultuous, indecisive, irritable and, worst of all, likely to stay that way for the next 10 hours. The boat swung up and from side to side, fell back, rolled, juddered and surfed before repeating the cycle again.

As I sweated over the chart table a kind of yellowness descended on me, and with an air of mournful resignation I realised that at some point I was going to have to indulge my inner ear with a bout of pointless vomiting. Towards the end of my shift, at about 3.30am, I accepted the inevitable and wearily settled myself at the port side of the cockpit to begin the tiresome job of vomiting. As I lay slumped in the cockpit feeling sorry for myself, I wondered why I had allowed us all to wallow into debt to buy a boat.

Juliet took over at 4am, as agreed, and I collapsed for a couple of hours' sleep. Some heavy squalls rolled in, and from time to time I would look up and see Juliet at the helm, clad in waterproofs, occasionally with one of the boys by her side.

At around 10am, we spotted a kind of unevenness on the horizon (about five miles from sea level) which I realised with joy was the first group of islands that make up the Islas de Aves. We continued past the first island, Sotavento, making for Barlovento which is 16 miles farther east. Islas de Aves means "islands of birds", and sure enough as we approached Barlovento we heard the chatter of countless birds, and saw the red feet of boobies sheltering in the deep-green mangroves.

When we found a spot we were happy with - clear of any coral that could be damaged - we dropped the anchor and sat back in the cockpit, looking around in awe. All around, tempting little channels disappeared into the mangroves, and I was just planning a foray with my son, Oscar, when a swift launch appeared from nowhere. My heart sank. The area we were in, although beautiful, was also in Venezuelan waters where episodes of piracy are not unknown.

As the boat approached, I wished that I had a shotgun or even a flare pistol just in case, but being unarmed, had instead to opt simply for a wide smile. Four deeply tanned, strong-looking men looked up at me, openly assessing. The oldest smiled and with a querying expression lifted up a crayfish and a crab. "Dollar?" I asked. They shook their heads and motioned drinking. I went below and opened the chiller. They went away happy with their cans of beer.

That night we sat in the cockpit, trying to take it all in. Eight hundred yards away we could see a line of white as waves broke across the reef. Above us, the occasional star shot and fizzed to nothing while all around phosphorescence sparkled as water sucked at the sides of our floating home. No charter yachts ever see these islands, and we felt privileged to have the chance to rest within their shelter for a night.

PARIS (Thomson Financial) - Distribution of 'Livret A' tax-free savings accounts will be opened to all French banks as part of an economic modernization bill to be presented to parliament next year, Prime Minister Francois Fillon's office said in a statement.

France was ordered by the European Union to end the monopoly on Livret A distribution currently held by state-owned postal bank La Banque Postale and mutual bank Caisse d'Epargne.

The bill including the provision for opening up Livret A distribution to all French banks will be presented to parliament in the first half of 2008, the prime minister's statement said.

greg.keller@thomson.com

gk1/lam

COPYRIGHT

Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

Column by Ann McFeatters

WASHINGTON - Pity the poor folks in Iowa. After the final debates, first among the Republican presidential candidates and then the Democratic contenders, before Iowans vote, the undecideds must be tempted to choose "None of the above."

Fair or not, the Iowa caucuses on the night of Jan. 3 will whisk out of the picture some of the candidates who have been running nonstop for a year. Two Democrats and two Republicans will leave Iowa for the New Hampshire primary boosted by the results, even if their triumph ultimately proves to be a last hurrah as voters in other states weigh in.

The last two debates, hosted by the Des Moines Register and Iowa Public Television, were painfully dreary, omitting questions about the war in Iraq, foreign policy and immigration. There was almost no give-and-take among the candidates and no follow-up.

Republicans would push for more tax cuts, paid for by unspecified spending cuts, and, with a few exceptions, such as Ron Paul of Texas, follow President Bush's policy on Iraq.

Democrats would raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy, get out of Iraq, make American foreign policy credible and spend more on health care and education.

The rest of us may be jealous that Iowans get to have the first vote - or contemptuous that such a serious decision that impacts us all starts in the county fairs of a small state. But as the long, long courtship of the Hawkeye State by the candidates comes to an end, we have gratitude to Iowans, who have lived with this process so the rest of us could go on about our own lives.

All the candidates have expressed their thanks to the people of Iowa for letting them into their living rooms, for shaking their hands and going to their rallies and, as Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said, for taking the process seriously and treating all the candidates with respect.

It has been tempting to criticize the contenders, all of whom have put their egos on display, inviting us to probe their lives, decisions, choices, family life, foibles and mistakes. But at the same time, we have to be grateful to them all for caring deeply about this country.

Everybody in America seems to want change, with the possible exception of the Bush dynasty. We haven't learned yet how the candidates specifically would deliver change in pragmatic, workable ways. But Iowans pushed and prodded as much as they could to try to force the candidates to tell us. As Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said, Iowans did the best they could to take the candidates out for test drives.

Asked about their New Year's resolutions, the Democrats, again, were egregiously predictable. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York would exercise more and spend more time with her family and rebuild the confidence and optimism of Americans. Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina would remember that every night a child goes to bed hungry, a family goes to the emergency room and a father loses his job. Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut wants optimism and that Iowans vote for him. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson vows to lose weight and stay positive. Biden vows to remember that life can change in a second and treat his family well. Obama resolves to be a better father and husband and not be timid.

Republicans were asked for their resolutions for each other. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee urged them to be more careful in what they say. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said they should all have a spirited campaign and then elect a Republican. One-time Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee resolved to be a better man, husband and father. Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado wondered how Huckabee is going to convince Americans he's the one. Ron Paul urged everyone to obey the Constitution and guard civil liberties. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California urged everyone to buy American goods. Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, urged everyone to realize they are lucky to be Americans. Sen. John McCain of Arizona urged everyone to raise the level of dialogue and civility.

With America in holiday mode, we leave Iowans to ponder their choices. As we do every four years, we salute, as Obama said, their core decency and generosity of spirit. And we wish them wisdom on Jan. 3, despite the tedium of the debates.

Scripps Howard columnist Ann McFeatters has covered the White House since 1986. Her e-mail address is amcfeatters@nationalpress.com.

Column by Ann McFeatters

WASHINGTON - Pity the poor folks in Iowa. After the final debates, first among the Republican presidential candidates and then the Democratic contenders, before Iowans vote, the undecideds must be tempted to choose "None of the above."

Fair or not, the Iowa caucuses on the night of Jan. 3 will whisk out of the picture some of the candidates who have been running nonstop for a year. Two Democrats and two Republicans will leave Iowa for the New Hampshire primary boosted by the results, even if their triumph ultimately proves to be a last hurrah as voters in other states weigh in.

The last two debates, hosted by the Des Moines Register and Iowa Public Television, were painfully dreary, omitting questions about the war in Iraq, foreign policy and immigration. There was almost no give-and-take among the candidates and no follow-up.

Republicans would push for more tax cuts, paid for by unspecified spending cuts, and, with a few exceptions, such as Ron Paul of Texas, follow President Bush's policy on Iraq.

Democrats would raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy, get out of Iraq, make American foreign policy credible and spend more on health care and education.

The rest of us may be jealous that Iowans get to have the first vote - or contemptuous that such a serious decision that impacts us all starts in the county fairs of a small state. But as the long, long courtship of the Hawkeye State by the candidates comes to an end, we have gratitude to Iowans, who have lived with this process so the rest of us could go on about our own lives.

All the candidates have expressed their thanks to the people of Iowa for letting them into their living rooms, for shaking their hands and going to their rallies and, as Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said, for taking the process seriously and treating all the candidates with respect.

It has been tempting to criticize the contenders, all of whom have put their egos on display, inviting us to probe their lives, decisions, choices, family life, foibles and mistakes. But at the same time, we have to be grateful to them all for caring deeply about this country.

Everybody in America seems to want change, with the possible exception of the Bush dynasty. We haven't learned yet how the candidates specifically would deliver change in pragmatic, workable ways. But Iowans pushed and prodded as much as they could to try to force the candidates to tell us. As Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said, Iowans did the best they could to take the candidates out for test drives.

Asked about their New Year's resolutions, the Democrats, again, were egregiously predictable. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York would exercise more and spend more time with her family and rebuild the confidence and optimism of Americans. Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina would remember that every night a child goes to bed hungry, a family goes to the emergency room and a father loses his job. Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut wants optimism and that Iowans vote for him. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson vows to lose weight and stay positive. Biden vows to remember that life can change in a second and treat his family well. Obama resolves to be a better father and husband and not be timid.

Republicans were asked for their resolutions for each other. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee urged them to be more careful in what they say. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said they should all have a spirited campaign and then elect a Republican. One-time Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee resolved to be a better man, husband and father. Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado wondered how Huckabee is going to convince Americans he's the one. Ron Paul urged everyone to obey the Constitution and guard civil liberties. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California urged everyone to buy American goods. Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, urged everyone to realize they are lucky to be Americans. Sen. John McCain of Arizona urged everyone to raise the level of dialogue and civility.

With America in holiday mode, we leave Iowans to ponder their choices. As we do every four years, we salute, as Obama said, their core decency and generosity of spirit. And we wish them wisdom on Jan. 3, despite the tedium of the debates.

Scripps Howard columnist Ann McFeatters has covered the White House since 1986. Her e-mail address is amcfeatters@nationalpress.com.

Christians have got used to the Christ being squeezed out of Christmas by secularism, consumerism and more recently inter-faith PC-ism, but now we are told by the Anglican Archdeacon of Auckland, no less, that Christians must accept that like it or not, Christmas is about more than Jesus.

Glynn Cardy avers approvingly that Jesus is now displaced as the reason for the season. He concludes his Herald Advent message by calling upon all people to celebrate the values of generosity, caring, togetherness and hospitality, values which reflect Christianity but also transcend it, embracing a borderless spirituality.

It's not that I have any quibble with the values he upholds, but I do not like the idea that Jesus is no longer the primary reason, or reason enough, for celebrating Christmas.

I like the idea even less when it is peddled by a senior cleric. My only consolation is that the same cleric argued in the same column last year that Jesus was conceived when Mary, his mother, was raped. He's not to be taken too seriously.

Jesus' place in the Christmas story, however, cannot be taken too seriously - and not only for reasons of faith. Reason itself requires it. As Mr Cardy himself admits, the supposedly universal values which he extols are seldom - if at all - found unadulterated in our society, even at Christmas time.

Generosity is marred by greed, guilt and debt. Hospitality falls prey to inter-family conflict and alcoholic excess. Feasting can be an occasion for calorie overload, and the goodwill of the Christmas season simply underscores for many their grief, isolation or purposelessness in life. Simply calling upon people of whatever faith, culture, or background to celebrate these values does absolutely nothing to empower them to do so.

On the contrary, it highlights their inability to do so, even once a year. It was precisely to address this problem that God sent his Son Jesus into the world.

God created the world good, in fact very good, but that goodness depended upon unspoiled relationships: vertically (between humans and God) and horizontally (between humans and all the rest of creation, including one another). As both Jesus and a Pharisee summarised it, we were made to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and our neighbour as oneself. What is often misunderstood or denied is that the latter depends upon the former.

What we learn from the opening chapters of the Bible is that human sin spoiled the goodness of creation by spoiling both vertical and horizontal relationships. Humans rejected God's purposes and suffered the consequences: alienation from God and from one another, the consequence being death. The lesson of the Old Testament is that no matter how hard people tried, and how much good instruction and revelation from God they received, they could not restore those relationships or overcome the problem of death. This is surely the lesson from history too. The two things that are truly universal are sin and death.

It is only in this light that we can appreciate the significance of God's Son entering the world in human form as Jesus of Nazareth. This was a unique, historical act; well attested and - if accepted as true - surely the most significant act in the history of the world.

What Jesus did was to take all the consequences of humanity's sin upon himself, including death, and overcome them. This he did by living a perfect life (in spite of being subjected to the whole gamut of human temptation), dying upon a cross, rising from the dead and ascending to heaven. He not only demonstrated the truth of a right relationship with God enabling a right relationship with the rest of creation but he embodied that truth. The deal is that if we accept what he has done, and if we accept him as God's only Son and the only way back to God, all the benefits of his victory over sin and death are, and forever will be, ours.

The key to all this is the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Christianity is not simply an appeal to a set of values, or a way of life. It is God's invitation to return to a restored relationship with him, which will in turn enable us to live in a restored relationship with the whole of creation. This is only possible because of what Jesus did in history and as we join ourselves to him. In St Paul's words: in Christ God was reconciling the whole world to himself (2 Cor 5:19).

In the light of all this we may return to the question: can Christmas be about more than Jesus? Or to put it another way: has humanity now found something better to celebrate than universal reconciliation and eternal life?

For Christians, the answer to these questions must be a resounding No! Others may of course choose to reject the Christian message and the person of Jesus, and Christians must respect their right to do so. However, they are then left to find their own answers as to why and how to celebrate Christmas, and how those values humanity supposedly aspires to will ever be universally embraced.

My own appeal is that we all take time during this festive season to ask whether there isn't more reason to celebrate Christmas than the vain hope of recovering otherwise under-valued values. If God did indeed step into history in the person of Jesus for our sake, to cut him out of Christmas is not gain but loss, not to exercise greater reason but greater madness. May that be the message from St Matthew-in-the-City too!

* Michael Hewat is vicar of the West Hamilton Anglican parish.

guess I have to be first on that list. Bill Martin knew what he was doing all along. Michigan could not have hired a better candidate to replace Lloyd Carr. This changes a whole lot in Ann Arbor, including ( cover your ears Bo) the spread offense being run by MICHIGAN in the Big House. Did you think you would ever see that day come?

Change was needed in Ann Arbor. Michigan was very stuck in their ways and with a Bo disciple running the program, ( Lloyd Carr), they were running in circles. Now with Rich Rodriguez in charge, Michigan can look to the future and be hopeful.

I can't put it into words how excited I am about this hire for Michigan. Rodriguez was my second choice behind Brian Kelly to succeed Lloyd Carr. There were rumors floating that Michigan would give offensive coordinator Mike Debord the interim label for a year and try to hire another huge name next year. That would have been a disaster. ALSO, LES MILES NOT GETTING THIS JOB WAS THE BEST THING THAT ANY MICHIGAN FAN COULD HAVE ASKED FOR.

Les was very much like Bo and Michigan would have probably reverted back to three yards and a cloud of dust. There is zero chance of that happening now with Rich Rodriguez's offense being the staple in Ann Arbor.

Congratulations to the Wolverines and Bill Martin for abandoning the status quo. That was a huge step in guiding Michigan back to the elite of college football. Of course, there will be questions about this hire.

What took Bill Martin so long? From the outset, Bill Martin said that he would get the best candidate for the job, no matter how long it took. Martin accomplished that.

What about all the recruits Michigan lost this past month? I'll answer that with a question of my own. What about all the recruits Michigan just GAINED? Rich Rodriguez brings buzz, excitement, a wiining record and mentality.

You can mock him for getting that record in the Big East. ( FYI fellow Big Ten fans, the Big East was top to bottom better than the Big Ten this year.) You can point out that Rodriguez and his Mountaineers blew a chance of playing in the BCS title game by losing to Pitt. I can't argue that, but name me a coach or team who didn't blow a game or title opportunity this year. I hear crickets.

As you can tell, I'm behind this hiring 100%. Change was needed and will happen in Ann Arbor. It will not happen overnight. Rodriguez has to get athletes and guys who know the spread offense to play at Michigan. If he can recruit those guys to play at West Virginia, he will find it easy to recruit those same guys to Michigan.

January 1 2008 will be, in a way, and ending of an era. After that day, there will be no more Henne, Hart, Long or Carr. There will be enthusiam, nervous anticiaption, excitement and change. It's what Michigan needs and Bill Martin knew it all along.

BY DAN JEDLICKA Chicago Sun-Times Auto Editor

High-production automakers don't build factory-engineered race-ready cars you can buy in showrooms any more, but Chevrolet made such a car from 1967 through 1969. It was the Camaro Z28 and is among the most unusual and highly prized cars in the booming classic muscle car market.

The Z28 was built to win the Sports Car Club of America's hot new Trans-Am racing series championship and beat the rival Ford Mustang in the process.

Two car classes competed in the series, which drew big-name drivers: cars with engines under 121 cubic inches in displacement, which was ideal for foreign cars, and autos with engines of no more than 305 cubic inches, a maximum 116-inch wheelbase and a minimum weight of 2,800 pounds.

The larger-engine class was suited to American cars such as the Mustang, which won the first Trans-Am championship in 1966 and infuriated Chevrolet, which had no Camaro racer ready to compete. Chevy was pretty angered to begin with because the Mustang beat the Camaro to market by more than two years.

Three of the eight Mustang teams were competing in the Trans-Am under race car builder Carroll Shelby's colors. That clearly meant Shelby had factory support from Ford, which he had been associated with for years.

Chevy had a problem in that it needed to make a race Camaro for the Trans-Am, but had no suitable engine for it. However, Chevy engineer and promotion specialist Vince Piggins found that if the Chevy 283-cubic-inch V-8's crankshaft was put in the automaker's 327-cubic-inch cylinder block, you had a 302.4-cubic-inch V-8 -- nearly perfect in size for the Trans-Am.

The engine had to be powerful, so it had Chevy Corvette cylinder heads, a huge Holley four-barrel carburetor to feed gobs of fuel; oversized high-rise manifold; large valves, race-engine camshaft to accompany noisy, but efficient, solid valve lifters; cast-iron exhaust headers, and dual exhausts.

The special engine was part of a "Z28'' RPO (Regular Production Option) package for Camaro coupes. The new hot Camaro originally was to be named "Cheetah,'' but General Motors and Chevy feared they'd get bad publicity if known to be selling a race car as a regular production model.

Pontiac had done virtually the same thing in turning a 1964 Pontiac Tempest into the iconic GTO muscle car by offering a GTO option package with a sizzling V-8 and such.

Chevy didn't want to alarm insurance companies, so it rated the Z28's horsepower at 290. The actual horsepower figure was anywhere from 350 to 400, judging by the car's performance. It did 0-60 mph in 5.3 to 6.7 seconds, depending on gearing, and hit nearly 130 mph.

I tested a Z-28 for the Sun-Times and found that, as with many race engines, it was a high-rev unit that had little punch below 3,000 rpm -- but really took off above that rpm mark, all the way to 7,000 rpm.

Legendary racer Smoky Yunick got his modified 1967 Z28 to top 174 mph at the Bonneville salt flats, where the car captured 259 world speed records.

The Z28 was clearly designed for road racing tracks. It had a heavy-duty suspension, power front disc brakes, metallic-lined rear drum brakes, large clutch, quick steering, hood air ducts, a close- or wide-ratio four-speed manual gearbox and "Wide Tread GT" high-performance tires.

The Z28 wasn't happy during street driving, with its high-rev engine, heavy manual steering and stiff suspension, although it could be used daily on roads if you were willing to expend the extra effort it took to drive it.

Besides the special V-8, the race-oriented equipment was part of the "Z28'' package. The Camaro with that package was reasonably priced because Chevy used existing parts and wanted the "Camaro Z-28'' affordable enough to be sold to regular muscle car fans -- not just to Trans-Am racers who knew exactly what the car was all about.

As it turned out, the word hadn't gotten out much to the general public about the Z28 in 1967, and thus only 602 Camaros with the Z28 option were built out of the 220,917 Camaros made that year. Chevy gave the car no promotion and even most Chevy dealers knew nothing about it. Most must have been baffled when customers asked for the mysterious "Z28'' package.

The "'civilian'' Z28 package cost about $400, but ended up closer to $800 because the four-speed transmission, disc brakes and special rear brake linings were "mandatory options.''

Broad racing stripes were standard for the 1967 Z28, although a "ducktail'' rear spoiler was a $32.68 option. Power-boosting exhaust headers cost a few hundred bucks and were put in the trunk at the factory for dealer installation. One could also order a cold air ram induction system that added horsepower.

There were other hot Camaro models, so you could add regular Camaro high-performance and cosmetic items, including a Positraction limited-slip differential and a Rally Sport appearance package.

A Z28's price could top $5,000, but this Chevy still was an amazing high-performance bargain. A 1967 Z28 now is valued at $110,125-$115,750, with the 1968 model at $80,100-$85,725 and the 1969 at $100,00-$105,750.

The Z28 proved itself in the Trans-Am series, beating the Mustang to win two Trans-Am championships in 1968 and 1969 after a track development year with only three wins in 1967. In 1968, the Z28 was virtually unbeatable, winning 10 of 13 races, including eight in a row.

Chevy finally began advertising the Z28 a little in 1968, when the car finally got "Z28'' badges. It ran a March 1968 advertisement in Motor Trend magazine that pictured a Z28, listed the car's prime high-performance features -- and called it the "closest thing to a Corvette yet.''

The 1968 Z28 got a bunch of improvements. They included four-wheel "Corvette-type'' disc brakes, larger engine bearings and stronger rear springs. There also was a $500 dealer-installed aluminum dual cross-ram manifold with two big Holley carburetors which now is seemingly worth its weight in gold in the Z28 collector market.

Factory racing equipment included light plastic bucket seats and specially designed steering components, air dams and spoilers. Anyone off the street could order all the options because that's what Trans-Am series rules required.

The word was getting out about the Z28, and the car's 1968 sales climbed to 7,199 units.

All 1969 Camaros were restyled to look more aggressive. The Z28 added a big "Cowl Induction" hood with a rear-facing scoop that sucked in air from the area immediately in front of the windshield. The manual transmission got a Hurst shifter, found in 1960s muscle cars. And the high-revving V-8 became stronger with four-bolt main bearings. High-performance white-lettered 70-series tires also were added.

The word was fully out now about the Z28, and 1969 sales more than doubled from 1968 to total 19,014 cars. That was a high figure for such a specialized car, and close to the number of 1969 Corvette coupes sold.

The redesigned 1970 Z28 was much more civilized. It had a more conventional high-performance V-8 and no longer was a race-oriented model. The same was true for all following Z28s, although they remained the highest-performance Camaro until the car was dropped after 2002.

But look for a Z28 version after the Camaro is reintroduced for 2009.

By Patrick Smith

After five-plus years of fielding air travel questions from the general public, I’ve pretty much heard it all. Certain subjects I expected to be popular — questions about the use of cell phones during flight, for instance — and I continue to be amazed at the number of fliers petrified by turbulence. But more than anything else, I have learned to never, ever underestimate how much people simply hate to fly.

Air travel today is a sterling example of a successfully evolved technology: something that was once extraordinary and available only to a privileged few is now ordinary and affordable to virtually everyone. With such progress, a certain level of hassle was inevitable: crowded planes, noisy terminals, lackluster service.

But it seems we got more than we bargained for. What, for example, can possibly justify the tedious and humiliating rigmarole of airport security? And the airlines themselves have made a bad situation needlessly worse. Contrary to public perception, airlines do not, as a form of policy, lie to their passengers. They are, however, insular, secretive and generally terrible communicators. Whatever vestige of dignity the experience of air travel retained was all but lost this past summer, when record-breaking flight delays stranded tens of millions of travelers around the country. It was, in many ways, a last straw.

Now, with all of this duly noted, let’s try something different. Allow me to stick my neck out and offer up some seldom-heard advice: try readjusting your perspective. Believe it or not, there’s a bright side to this mess. Even as you’re wedged into row 57 next to a screaming infant, with a Chick-fil-A sandwich congealing in your stomach, there’s plenty to be thankful for.

Let’s begin with the simple physics of it. In 2007, a passenger is able to step onto a jetliner in New York City and, in a matter of hours, without so much as a fuel stop, step off that airplane halfway around the world — in Bangkok, Singapore, Tokyo or Mumbai. That’s a voyage that once took months in a sailing ship. That 777 or Airbus A340 you’re sitting in is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, traveling thousands of feet above the earth at 500 miles per hour. Say what you want about bad food and a lack of legroom, that’s pretty darn impressive.

To say nothing of how cheap it is. Whenever people moan about the cost of flying, I think of that old American Airlines ticket that sits on the bookshelf in my home office. It’s a flea market find, and it dates from 1946. That year, somebody named James Connors paid $334 to fly one-way from Shannon to New York — roughly the same that you’d pay on Aer Lingus today. Using the Consumer Price Index conversion, $334 is equivalent to over $3,000 in 2007.

Adjusted for inflation, the cost of air travel has fallen sharply over the past two decades. According to the Air Transport Association, fares in 2006 averaged 12 percent lower than what they were in 2000, in spite of a 150 percent rise in jet fuel costs. No, amenities and customer service aren’t what they used to be, but what do you expect in an industry where per-mile profit margins are sometimes a penny or less? We all want more legroom and better meals — or meals at all — but you cannot have such things and that $79 fare to Florida.

Meanwhile, those delays we’ve all been dealing with are the product of ever-more flights departing to ever-more cities. But look at it this way: domestically, you can now fly between almost any two airports in America with, at worst, a single stopover. A few decades ago, that trip from Austin, Tex., to Bangor, Me., would have entailed awkward transfers through two, three, even four other cities. Internationally, transoceanic routes have fragmented, allowing people to fly direct from many smaller hubs in the United States to points in Europe, Latin America and elsewhere. Nobody enjoys holding patterns or sitting on a tarmac, but in earlier days the overall journey time would have been longer — not to mention pricier.

And last but certainly not least, flying remains remarkably safe. Globally, there are twice as many people traveling in twice as many airplanes as there were a quarter-century ago. The raw total of crashes has risen, but as a percentage of the whole, fatalities are way down. There has not been a crash involving a major United States air carrier since November, 2001 — the longest such streak in the modern history of civil aviation. Air travel today is roughly six times safer than it was 25 years ago, thanks mostly to better crew training and more reliable technologies. (Though you wouldn’t necessarily know it by watching TV or reading the papers; if we’re misinterpreting things, it’s largely because the media have taken to sensationalizing minor events and scandalizing what it doesn’t understand.)

In the end, there are no justifications for airlines behaving badly or denying basic dignities to their customers. But at the same time, we have lost an appreciation for just how remarkable flying is. The fact that for a few pennies per mile we have the ability to zip ourselves halfway across the country, or halfway around the world, in a matter of hours, in nearly absolute safety, is almost entirely taken for granted.

I spent the month of November in New York, and for part of that time I hung out at the Museum of Television and Radio (now the Paley Center for Media), doing research for a book I’m writing on the ’60s TV show “The Fugitive.” When I wasn’t reading reviews and cover stories in old issues of TV guide, I was going to galleries, listening to concerts and seeking out movies that would probably not make it up to Delaware County. The movie I found was “Starting Out in the Evening,” described in the reviews as a “small film,” which means not only that there are no special effects, but that almost nothing happens (a point of criticism on the part of some reviewers).

Leonard Schiller, an aging novelist whose four books are out of print, is laboring without much success to produce a fifth when a beautiful young woman enters his life and challenges the insularity of his hitherto inviolate routines. She is writing a master’s thesis on him and wants to explore the relationship between his writing and his emotional history.

He resists any such probing — he says that his characters have their own lives and that he just follows them around waiting for something interesting to happen — and the tension between them reflects the ancient quarrel between those who think that art is an expression of personal experience and those, like Schiller, who think that art is its own realm and is responsible only to the demands and laws of craft.

In a parallel story, Schiller’s 40-year-old daughter is also having birth pangs, but in a more literal sense. Devoted to a father who maintains a severe emotional distance from her, she wants desperately to have a child. But the man she loves is resolved not to bring anyone else into the world, and the two have been busy not negotiating this issue for a number of years.

That’s it; nothing else.

Only two things in the film rise to the status of an event. Schiller has a stroke, but its effect, finally, is only further to slow down a life that was already near quiescent. And in a conversation where it seems to him that Heather Wolfe (his young admirer) is condescending to him, he slaps her. But since the slap comes across almost as a caress — perhaps even a statement of gratitude for her having made him think about what it means to write — it does not have that much force and is in no way a climax to the non-action of the non-plot. In the last moment of the movie, Schiller goes back to his typewriter — an emblem of his refusal to be connected to things outside his study — and begins anew the search for the right word.

Refusal is the film’s mode, and watching it reminded me of why I am so drawn to “The Fugitive,” a series that ran on ABC from 1963 to 1967 and was the basis of a Harrison Ford-Tommy Lee Jones blockbuster in the nineties. (A new TV version, determinedly unfaithful to the original, tanked in 2000.)

It might seem that “The Fugitive” is the antithesis of “Starting Out in the Evening” because it is apparently so plot-driven. Everyone knows the story: Richard Kimble, a pediatrician, has been convicted of killing his wife. He alone knows that the real killer is a one-armed man he saw running from his house on the night of the murder. He is reprieved from execution when the train taking him and his detective-guard, lieutenant Philip Gerard, runs off the rails allowing him to escape. Gerard pursues him relentlessly and he, not quite as relentlessly, pursues the one-armed man.

But this double-pursuit plot does not give the drama its energy; it is merely a device for getting Kimble in and out of the many small towns where he encounters men and women in various stages of moral and psychological distress. The story really belongs to them and to the moments in which they must respond to the opportunities and dangers Kimble’s presence in their midst produces. Will they betray him? Do they believe in his innocence? Do they trust in the workings of blind justice?

While the decisions they make and the actions they take often affect Kimble (who is always a second away from capture), the real significance of what they do (or fail to do) resides in the lives they will live when he is long gone. He is the catalyst who precipitates a self-examination and a taking of stock he never performs; and it is only when his work is done (or turns out to be impossible; some people are just too far gone) that the plot kicks in – someone recognizes him – and he has to get out of town, often hiding in the back of a truck or in some other ignominious posture.

In short, “The Fugitive” is about character and moral choice and not about plot, even though it is through the mechanism of plot that Kimble moves on to the next place where people need his help more than he needs theirs. All the action, such as it is, takes place in small, usually dark rooms where a troubled soul is forced to confront his or her aspirations, doubts and demons.

The same can be said of “Starting Out in the Evening,” in which a typical scene finds Schiller and his adversary/admirer, or Schiller and his daughter, or the daughter and her lover, giving voice to their fears and anxieties and trying to come to terms with their limitations, often in the limited spaces of an upper West Side apartment. “People talk a lot” in this movie, one reviewer complained, and added that it was all too “masturbatory,” that is, self-focused.

And indeed it is, to the exclusion of everything else: The only issues raised are the issues with which the members of the small cast are obsessed — dedication to art vs. openness to the messiness of life, integrity vs. connectedness, purity of purpose vs. the seductions of commerce and fame (which Milton famously called “that last infirmity of noble mind.”) You would never know, while watching this movie, that there was a whole lot going on in the world — wars, famines, international crises, presidential elections, environmental disasters. We are allowed to assume that the setting is contemporary — 2007 — but the scene could be shifted to 1907 or 1607 without any loss whatsoever.

This is part of what I meant when I said earlier that the mode of the film is refusal. First, it refuses cinematic virtuosity. No intricate cutting, no clever camera angles, no hallucinations, no flashbacks, no disruptions of sequence, no tricks. Just a straight-ahead representation of one conversational scene after another in “real time.” Second, it refuses excitement, except of a quiet psychological kind. And third, it refuses relevance. Politics is referenced only once, when the daughter’s boyfriend (who is black, a fact of which, praise be, absolutely nothing is made) says that he would like to start a magazine that would be a forum for left-wing views.

But there are no left wing views expressed; indeed, there are no views expressed at all, except for the ones that relate to the existential plights of the characters. (In its determined austerity, the film sides with Schiller against the women who would draw him out of his aesthetic cocoon.)

And so it is with “The Fugitive,” too. Although the period 1963-1967 saw world-shaking events, none of them takes center stage in the series’ 120 episodes. Kimble and those he encounters can be presumed to have political views and partisan identifications; but we hear nothing about them, for they are no part of the moral deliberations that lead the characters to see what they have become and to consider what they might become were they to make this choice rather than that.

The day after I saw “Starting Out in the Evening,” I had another, instructively different cultural experience. I went to the opening of the New Museum at 235 Bowery. (Not the V.I.P. opening, to which for some reason I wasn’t invited, but the free-to-the-public opening.) Where I loved every moment of the movie (too much identification with the lead character, I suspect), I hated every moment in the museum, which is all drama, surprise, flash, effect and politics.

I know that I’m supposed to admire the structure of stacked-slightly-off-kilter boxes, but it didn’t do anything for me. The interior irritated me, starting with the pretentious-because-it-declares-itself-to-be-unpretenti ous concrete floor (complete with cracks). Then there were the harsh, industrial-style lights; the gift shop behind a mesh curtain of the kind you find in pawn shops; the cattle-car elevator; and the tiny café, intended, it would seem, to be inadequate to any conceivable occasion. Everything was making a statement and issuing a challenge: Do you get it? (Obviously I didn’t.)

But it was the art that told me how hopelessly retro I am. Here is a description from a reviewer who loved it: “Looking at the New Museum of Contemporary Art’s inaugural … exhibition is like visiting the crash pad of a favorite friend, the one that’s creative and stays up all night and leaves dirty dishes piled up in the sink and doesn’t have any real furniture and what’s in their place came from the stuff people threw out on the sidewalk.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. The idea is to find bits and pieces of detritus and put them together in surprising and sometimes shocking ways. There’s a picture of Mel Gibson suspended from a long pole attached to a bicycle. There’s an arc of old chairs perched on what looks like broken mattress springs. There is an auditorium in which I sat watching a home movie featuring a pack of barking dogs.

At least you can sit in the auditorium. There are no chairs or benches in the rest of the building, a warning to museum-goers that they are not here to gaze reverently at timeless and monumental works of art. This inaugural exhibition is titled “Unmonumental”; the items in it, the museum’s Web site tells us, are “conversational, provisional, at times even corroded and corrupted … unheroic and manifestly unmonumental.” These works do not attempt to defeat time, but embrace it, and with it impermanence and decay.

They also embrace politics as the (vaguely postmodern) aesthetic that produces them demands. If art is not an autonomous discipline obeying internal laws, but is responsive to and constitutive of the contingent events of history, it is already political and offering itself as anything else would be a lie. What lies, the exhibit implies, is the illusion of depth and profundity. Here, everything is surface and perspective; no meanings are stable; no interpretations are authoritative. The largest piece in the exhibit is a multi-media installation — seven channels of ever-changing text messages flashing on rectangular shapes — “that tells a chilling story of abduction and assassination from seven separate points of view, set to an eerily laid-back bossa nova score.” (You can’t make these things up.)

But although randomness and chance are themes of this installation and of other pieces in the exhibit, there is nothing random in either the concepts or their implementation. I cannot deny the museum’s coherence, its (playful) seriousness. I just don’t like it. What it embraces — the ephemeral and the insubstantial — I shun, and what I embrace — work that aspires to permanence — it pokes fun at.

I cannot help wondering what Leonard Schiller, in search of formal perfection (he wears a tie and jacket in his study), or Richard Kimble, in search of perfect justice even as he flees its imperfect judgment, would think if they walked through the New Museum. But then I already know.

STATESVILLE, N.C. -- Statesville Police are investigating two early morning shootings that left one man dead and another man injured.

Two people have been arrested in connection with the shootings, but police are still looking for one man that got away.

Police said the shootings happened around 4:20 a.m. in the 900 block of Fourth Street. When officers arrived they found 36-year-old Robert Young of Statesville with a gunshot wound to his chest. Young was taken to Iredell Memorial Hospital where he died from his injuries.

Police said that Robert Ferguson was also injured in the shooting. Ferguson was transported to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the leg. He was treated and released Saturday afternoon.

Police believe that the shootings happened after a verbal dispute between Ferguson and one of the suspects.

Police have arrested Darian Price and Tshilanda Stockton for their involvement with the shootings, but are still looking for Torrey Stockton, 32, of Charlotte. All suspects face charges of 1st Degree Murder and Attempted First Degree Murder.

Price and Stockton are being held at the Iredell County jail without bond.

Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Torrey Stockton is asked to call the Statesville Police Department at (704) 878-3406 or Crimestoppers at (704) 437-COPS (2677).

Copyright 2007 by WSOCTV.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

One man was killed and another was injured after an argument in Statesville ended in gunfire early Saturday morning, and police are looking for a Charlotte man who is charged with murder.

Torrey Odell Stockton, 32, whose last known address was 1408 Camp Green St. in Charlotte, remained at large Saturday night. Police say he should be considered armed and dangerous.

Officers believe Stockton, his sister and another man each had a part in the fatal shooting. Tshilanda Rachelle Stockton, 32, and 23-year-old Darian Price are in the Iredell County Jail, charged with both murder and attempted murder, according to a news release. They were given no bond. They are accused of killing 36-year-old Robert Erskine Young, of Statesville. He was found with gunshot wounds to his chest in the 900 block of Fourth Street in downtown Statesville. He died at Iredell Memorial Hospital a short time later.

Another man, Robert Lee Ferguson, a 28-year-old who also lives in Statesville, was shot in the leg, but fled to 115 Mill St., where officers found him. He was treated at the same hospital, then released. Anyone with information should call Statesville police at 704-878-3406 or Crime Stoppers at 704-437-COPS. -- Cleve R. Wootson Jr.

Police are looking for the third suspect in connection with a murder in Statesville early Saturday.

Torrey Stockton, 32, is wanted for first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder.

Darian Price and Tshilanda Stockton have already been arrested in connection with the murder of Robert Young in an incident that police say started as an argument but ended with two people shot.

The second victim was shot in the chest but will be okay.

Police say Stockton should be considered to be armed and dangerous.

For Gift-Basket Maker, Pay-Per-Placement Is Better Than Going Solo and Cheaper Than Traditional Firms
By SIMONA COVEL

Cynthia McKay admits she learned public relations the hard way.

The first PR professional she hired burned through $3,000 in two weeks with no results. When Ms. McKay struck out on her own, she wound up on a national television newsmagazine in a segment on rudeness in America -- as an example of how not to behave.

For years, Ms. McKay floundered trying to raise awareness for Le Gourmet Gift Basket Inc., her small company in Castle Rock, Colo. Then she found a solution: pay-for-placement public relations.

She now works with an independent PR agent, who charges only when a story about her company makes it into the press. That's a contrast to traditional PR firms, which can charge retainers as high as $20,000 per month for even small-company clients regardless of results.

Making a Pitch

A mention in a news article or television broadcast can have a big payoff for a little-known business. But small companies often struggle to get such media coverage. Most can't afford the big fees traditional agencies charge or in-house expertise to guide them. And solo efforts may yield only rejections or, worse, bad press. So many small companies are constantly looking for some middle ground.

One approach that's getting an increasing amount of attention is pay-per-placement PR. Critics point out, however, that it isn't for everybody. For one thing, they say, many pay-per-placement firms usually won't take on tasks other than pitching stories to the media. That means no strategy development, marketing or other work that many small businesses may need for an effective PR campaign.

Public relations "is more than being in the media," says Rhoda Weiss, chairwoman and chief executive officer of the Public Relations Society of America, a trade group in New York. "When you work with a [full-service] public-relations firm, they will develop a communications strategy."

Still, pay-per-placement PR is gaining traction with people like Ms. McKay, Le Gourmet's chief executive, who simply wants exposure for her 28-employee company, which sells gift baskets though distributors around the world.

'Nickled and Dimed'

Ms. McKay, 52, began her PR efforts in 1992 after an ad she bought in a home-building magazine brought in no new business. Hoping to get more for her money, she hired a PR agent whom she met through a business associate. Ms. McKay paid an initial $1,000 retainer. Four days later, she was asked for another $2,000.

The agent "was so charismatic," Ms. McKay recalls. "Every time she went to a cocktail party and mentioned me, she'd charge me. ...I thought, 'Of course I have to pay for her connections.' "

But after three weeks, Ms. McKay says, it became clear that she might not see results for a long time.

So, she decided to go at it alone. Ms. McKay wrote to 70 news outlets and garnered one mention in a local shopping column. She got three customer calls and two bounced checks. She earned another write-up in a paper -- but no new customers -- when she joined the local chamber of commerce.

Feeling desperate, Ms. McKay called a local TV show, hoping to appear in a segment. The producer not-so-politely declined. "That put me in my place," she recalls.

Soon after, Ms. McKay saw a PR firm mentioned in an article in a local paper about a grand opening of a woman-owned business. She called the firm and said that she'd been burned in the past. Its pitch to her: After an initial $1,200 for five placements, it would charge her per article. She signed on.

A cover story about careers in a well-known women's magazine led to a huge sales jump, Ms. McKay says. She paid the firm $2,500 for the placement.

Still, she wasn't completely satisfied with the arrangement. Sometimes, the firm didn't seem to do much work for her. If, say, a journalist emailed the firm asking if it knew of any female business owners, she says, a representative would just forward the email to her -- and charge.

A story mentioning Le Gourmet's donations of gift baskets to soldiers in Iraq was picked up by the Associated Press, which distributes articles to newspapers across the country. The PR firm charged Ms. McKay each time a newspaper picked up the story, for a total of about $11,000. She felt "nickel and dimed," she says.

Ms. McKay decided to stop working with the firm. She looked into big PR firms in Denver, but quickly realized she couldn't afford the retainers.

Good and Bad Exposure

So she tried again on her own. Last year, Ms. McKay heard that television newsmagazine "20/20" wanted to interview female CEOs. She got in touch with the show and in an interview revealed that she sometimes kept her cellphone turned on in movie theaters and slept next to her laptop. She assumed she'd be portrayed as a busy business owner.

But when the segment aired, she learned it was titled "That's So Rude! What's Happened to Manners in America?" Five minutes into the segment, she says, the hate email began rolling in. Six consulting clients left. "I never thought we'd recover," she says.

A "20/20" spokeswoman declined to comment on this episode.

A few months later, Ms. McKay hired another PR agent, Margie Zable Fisher in Boca Raton, Fla.

Ms. Zable Fisher had read about Ms. McKay's business and initially contacted her. Reassured that she could simply end the contract at any point if she wasn't seeing results, Ms. McKay paid $1,000 to get started. Ms. Zable Fisher asked Ms. McKay about her PR dream (appearing on "The Oprah Winfrey Show") and what she wasn't so interested in (radio interviews).

Ms. Zable Fisher reaches out to media contacts when she thinks Ms. McKay might be a fit for them -- on topics from women-owned businesses to her animal-rights activism.

For instance, Ms. Zable Fisher says her bill for arranging the interview that led to this article will be $6,000. Landing a feature in a large newspaper tops her price scale, which starts at $500 for a mention on a low-traffic Web site or small radio or TV show. Ms. Zable Fisher occasionally forwards interview opportunities without requesting payment. Ms. McKay likes the exposure she has gained so far.

Despite her struggles, Ms. McKay says the time spent on public relations has been worth it. She estimates that 80% of her company's growth came from spreading the word through the media. But she hasn't made the Oprah show yet.

Write to Simona Covel at simona.covel@wsj.com

By SIMONA COVEL

From magazine-sponsored awards to industry competitions, contests seem to exist for nearly every kind of small business.

Winning an award can lead to media coverage and raise a company's profile. But the field can be crowded, and entry forms often are complicated. The Wall Street Journal talked with Elin Nozewski, account supervisor at Airfoil Public Relations Inc. in Southfield, Mich., about how it helps clients put together contest applications that help win over judges. This year it helped its client, ePrize LLC, win 17 of the 55 contests it applied to. (Read the article.) Here are Ms. Nozewski's tips for improving your company's chances of winning.

1. Read the rules. It sounds obvious, but often companies don't follow every guideline, says Ms. Nozewski. If a contest requires that a company be no more than five years old, and your company was founded six years ago, don't enter. Judges in most cases will throw out applications that don't adhere to the rules.

Similarly, make sure you find the best category for your company. Maybe your entry fits better under interactive marketing, for example, than it does under promotions. Study the guidelines to find the right match.

2. Embrace your failures. Companies are often "hesitant to reveal their troubles," Ms. Nozewski says. That can be a mistake. Judges like to see an application that shows how a company has improved or turned around its fortunes. An entry that clearly reveals a company that has overcome adversity is "more attractive than just talking about how successful" a company is, she adds.

3. Say it with numbers. Whenever possible, include figures to back up claims. For instance, don't say only that you reduced costs, specify by how much and in what areas. Similarly, if an ad campaign or promotion increased Web-site traffic, say by how much and in what timeframe. Express a decline or increase as a percentage whenever applicable, Ms. Nozewski advises -- that's one of most judges' favorite metrics.

4. Channel your inner storyteller. Marketers or business executives who aren't used to these kinds of writing exercises sometimes run into trouble crafting their applications. Ms. Nozewski says that submissions should tell a story, taking the judges through the steps of a company's or executive's journey. If you're talking about a chief executive's strategy shift, for example, say that he or she walked in one day and announced a new initiative. Then walk the judges through what happened next – weaving in the failures and successes along the way.

When you're finished, ask several people to proofread. Judges often will toss away sloppy applications.

5. Fear not the judges. Often, the panel will welcome your questions and may be able to offer tips for your entry. They may push you in the right direction, noting the strategies that winners have used in the past. You even can ask which categories draw the most and least applicants. "The extra work will give you a higher chance of winning," says Ms. Nozewski.

6. Manage expectations. Congratulations – you've won! Now what? First, don't expect to land on the front pages of national publications. Unless the award is run by a national media outlet, the local media are your best opportunity, because "they're interested in the success of local companies," says Ms. Nozewski.

Airfoil tells its clients that they usually can expect their local papers to mention an award in their business section. But don't expect a big feature story, unless you have something unusual to say, such as you're the first company in the state to win the honor. Ms. Nozewski advises writing a two-paragraph press release saying your company won an award or ranked on a list, and sending it to the local press.

News about your win shouldn't stop there. Make sure your marketing and sales departments know, too, and have materials about the honor to hand out. Consider adapting the story you crafted for the application for PowerPoint slides to use in sales presentations. Add a mention about your new laurel to your Web site, and if an executive won an award, note it in his or her online bio.

Write to Simona Covel at simona.covel@wsj.com

By SIMONA COVEL

When you think of hospital food, you probably don't imagine dishes like macadamia-crusted tilapia with sweet soy reduction and mint sauce.

Debra Lynn Ross wanted to change that.

Ms. Ross is director of corporate communications at Consorta Inc., a small purchaser and distributor of supplies -- including medical devices, office supplies and kitchen items -- for a network of faith-based and nonprofit hospitals. And she needed to persuade more food companies to offer their wares to Consorta's affiliated hospitals.

But what started as small-scale food and nutrition demonstrations at its annual conference morphed into "Battle of the Hospital Chefs," a slickly produced cook-off that drew not only the interest of hospital suppliers but local and national media as well.

It's the kind of event that, when done right, can attract new customers and spread the word among a targeted audience.

Beyond Mystery Meatloaf

Consorta, a 46-employee company in the Chicago area, had encouraged suppliers to hold food demonstrations at their booths at its 2006 conference, but they fell flat. So Ms. Ross, who is a fan of cooking-competition television shows like "Top Chef," thought a cook-off would be a prime showcase for food and nutrition as well as for Consorta.

"We tried to think of what kind of event would draw attention to the way food has been changing" in hospitals, she says, getting away from the stereotypes of "mystery meatloaf and green Jell-O."

One problem: The company had only eight weeks to find judges, create promotion materials, plan logistics and find contestants. It also had to rent cooking equipment and install large mirrors on the ceiling so the audience could peer into pots and pans as chefs cooked.

Ms. Ross put together a team of seven people, who worked practically around the clock, she says. One person worked with the chefs. Another created a Web site. A third spread the word to the media.

Chefs at Consorta's affiliated hospitals submitted recipes. Meals had to contain a protein, starch, vegetable and beverage -- and cost less than $4.95 a plate. Consorta's head of food and nutritional contracting sifted through nearly 200 submissions to select a slate of contestants.

The firm reached out to a "dream list" of judges and signed up the first three who responded -- three well-known Chicago chefs. Consorta's CEO and chief operating officer rounded out the panel.

'To the Next Level'

Outsourcing the event, Ms. Ross estimates, might have cost up to $100,000 -- much more than the small firm could spend. So Consorta decided to do the work in-house and secure sponsors. The sponsors never materialized, however, and the event cost the firm about $25,000.

The event, held at a downtown Chicago hotel during its conference in September, drew two local media outlets and ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson." Consorta sent plates of food to the anchors of a Chicago morning show to sample on the air.

"It pushed healthy food in hospitals...and took our media relations to the next level," says Ms. Ross.

She says she expects Consorta's event to be bigger next year. Ms. Ross is planning regional competitions, which would culminate in a national cook-off. The company is trademarking the "Battle of the Hospital Chefs" name. And she's trying again for sponsors to ease the cost burden.

Write to Simona Covel at simona.covel@wsj.com

By SIMONA COVEL

This year ePrize LLC took home 17 awards in contests from industry rankings to workplace culture. But that number doesn't tell the whole story.

The interactive-promotions company entered 55 contests in all in 2007.

The laurels are more than just an ego boost, though. They're a major part of ePrize's plan to help the 350-employee company stand out in a crowded field of flashy advertising and marketing companies.

"We always put ourselves out there," says Alesya Opelt, senior director of marketing at ePrize, based in Pleasant Ridge, Mich., outside Detroit. "We don't think, 'Oh, we're not in New York, we're not in L.A., we can't win the awards.' "

Recognition in a contest or other award program can lift a small company's credibility and generate positive press. Most industries offer their own awards. And small-business competitions abound. Better-known awards include Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year; the Inc. 500 -- and the expanded Inc. 5,000; and local and regional best-place-to-work honors. This year, The Wall Street Journal, in collaboration with Winning Workplaces, a nonprofit in Evanston, Ill., held its first annual Top Small Workplaces competition.

"We're seeing a growing trend in these awards, because there's a growing recognition that entrepreneurship is essential to society," says Judith Cone, vice president of emerging strategies for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Mo., which promotes entrepreneurship. Such contests also are a way for publishers to drum up interest and dollars. For a small company, that means more opportunities to shine.

First, a Finalist

EPrize entered its first award program in 2004, coming in as a finalist for a promotion the firm engineered for online retailer Bluefly Inc. -- a Manolo Blahnik shoe giveaway. "In the beginning, [the finalist placement] was enough for us," says Ms. Opelt. "We weren't very well known, and that was a problem." The award, sponsored by Promo Magazine, got ePrize mentioned in the trade publication.

Executives quickly noticed the excitement that winning such contests created within ePrize's own walls, as well as with potential clients. "Now you can say you have an award-winning creative team," Ms. Opelt says. The accolades also have come in handy in recruiting, she adds, as people want to be associated with a winning company.

As much as a quarter of the company's public-relations efforts are now spent entering awards, Ms. Opelt says. In January, when many applications are due, about a half-dozen people -- split between ePrize and its outside PR agency -- spend up to 75% of their time assembling applications.

Entry fees generally range from $100 to $500 per application -- though when a fee crosses the $250 mark, Ms. Opelt's team takes extra care to decide if it's worth the investment. EPrize spends around $10,000 annually on contest entry fees.

The company's PR firm issues a news release when an award is won. EPrize tracks the number of media mentions it gets -- and it sees the numbers go up when it wins an award. The firm also sees that visitors to its Web site click through from links in news stories where the awards are mentioned.

Develop a Track Record

A young company seeking to follow ePrize's approach may want to wait to develop a track record first. EPrize, founded in 1999, began entering contests only after executives were confident the firm's clients and promotional campaigns would impress judges.

Also, the programs shouldn't be the sole focus of a company's PR efforts, says Matt Batt, national media-relations manager at public-relations firm Tech Image Ltd. in Buffalo Grove, Ill. "Companies need to realize that receiving an award is an event," he says, and won't necessarily help develop relationships with reporters that engender continued positive press.

In addition to striving to win awards, a small firm can seek continuing exposure by promoting its uniqueness and positioning executives as industry leaders, through speaking engagements and expert commentary in articles, he says.

The recognition from the awards helps ePrize gain exposure in other ways. EPrize has cultivated relationships with the media. "There's always a backdrop of, 'This company is legitimate. Look how many awards they've won.' It gives us name-brand recognition," Ms. Opelt says.

Not all of the coverage comes out the way executives would like to see it, however, she says. A blog post on technology-news site ClickZ.com, for instance, criticized ePrize's new technology for small-business promotional campaigns when it was introduced last year, saying that despite its claims, the product didn't contain any new ideas.

"Not everyone will be pleased with every business move," Ms. Opelt says, "and with the proliferation of online reviews and reporters editorializing on blogs, companies need to expect and to handle both positive and negative feedback and be able to learn from both."

Write to Simona Covel at simona.covel@wsj.com

Last-minute shoppers are getting their business wrapped up this week and it's no different in the political world where a slew of endorsements have come down in the last couple of days. The most coveted, of course, was the nod given by the Des Moines Register to Hillary Clinton and John McCain this weekend – but that wasn't the only action.

Clinton has of late nabbed the support of former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey and Iowa Rep. Leonard Boswell. McCain has now been endorsed by major newspapers in Iowa, New Hampshire and Massachusetts and gets a boost today from Independent Senator and one-time Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Lieberman. McCain and Barack Obama were endorsed by the Boston Globe yesterday. Even John Edwards is getting into the act – he'll get the support of Iowa First Lady Mari Culver (Gov. Chet Culver says he will remain neutral).

For McCain, these endorsements are an important source of vindication for his decision to run again eight years after nearly capturing the GOP nomination but all the public support in the world is unlikely to make much of a difference for him in Iowa, where he's well behind. His chances in New Hampshire look brighter but it's still an uphill battle, especially for independent voters who fueled his success in 2000 but are likely to gravitate toward the Democratic race in some numbers.

For Clinton, these endorsements help reinforce her place as the establishment candidate but it's a risky position at the moment. Should Clinton finish second – or worse, third – in Iowa, that top-heavy strategy could begin to unravel quickly, especially with New Hampshire voting just five days later. Should Obama charge out of the gate with two big wins, he would head to South Carolina looking to deliver a knock-out punch.

Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton, the Des Moines Register and Manchester Union-Leader, governors, senators and celebrity endorsements aside, it's still the voters who will make the decisions about who the nominees will be next fall. That's why the candidates are spending less time with their famous friends and more time knocking on doors courting those whose endorsements on caucus/primary day means the most.

Plus: Ron Paul breaks record, raises over $6M in one day; Clinton backer brings up Obama's Muslim heritage; Giuliani reducing New Hampshire effort; Huckabee grows more critical of Bush's foreign policy; Clinton invites voters to check under the hood and Dixville Notch readies for its moment in the sun. In today's Horserace.

Kudos to all who made Luminaria Night a special occasion in Freeport on Sunday. Pedestrians, neighbors and friends walked up and down Stephenson Street to enjoy the added attraction of lighted containers outlining the sidewalks and walkways on the city's main thoroughfare.

It was festive, friendly, and everything that makes Freeport a special place to live and work. There were simple votive lights inside paper bags, and there were neighbors who offered wood fires, cookies, and hot chocolate to battle the elements.

Elvis and Santa Claus even arrived!

This attraction was in front of already decorated and majestic homes up and down the avenue.

Stephenson Street was a sight to behold Sunday night, for everyone who sought to capture the magic of the holiday.

It doesn't come without effort, however.

Thanks to the neighbors and friends who invested time and money, and made the evening very special and a real event of community pride.

Freeport has plenty of reason to feel good about its prospects for the future. There is hope on the horizon for continued residential development, retail expansion, and an ongoing effort to draw new industry to the community. One reason for that hope is the character of people who have already committed to this area. That was evidenced Sunday night.

Victory claimed by both Craddick and his opponents

By R.G. RATCLIFFE
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

AUSTIN — Attorney General Greg Abbott has delivered a legal opinion that gives both sides tacit victories in the battle to oust Rep. Tom Craddick as Texas House speaker.

Abbott agreed with Craddick that the speaker is a state officer who is subject to removal from office by impeachment, a process that would give the Texas Senate the final say in whether the House presiding officer kept his job.

"But the fact that the speaker can be impeached (under the Texas Constitution) does not mean that impeachment is the only means of removing a speaker," Abbott wrote.

House rebels in the final days of the legislative session in May tried to remove Craddick by calling a vote to vacate the chair. Craddick refused to allow the vote to occur, saying he had "absolute authority" to interpret House rules.

The anti-Craddick side had hoped Abbott would rule that Craddick had exceeded his authority. But Abbott declined to give an opinion on House rules.

The Abbott opinion was delivered Friday.

Craddick's spokeswoman, Alexis DeLee, hailed the ruling as a victory for the speaker.

"The speaker welcomes the attorney general's opinion and his acknowledgment that the rules of the House, as well as the interpretation of those rules, are matters to be determined solely by the members of the House," DeLee said. "The attorney general's opinion affirms the speaker's position on all issues, including that the speaker is an officer of the state, who serves a two-year term of office."

State Rep. Jim Keffer, R-Eastland, and Rep. Byron Cook, R-Corsicana, described Abbott as "punting" in the debate.

"We firmly believe our state constitution did not create the Texas House Speaker post as a dictatorial position," Keffer and Cook said in a joint statement.

Keffer is an announced candidate for speaker when the Legislature convenes in 2009.

State Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, who lost a speaker's race to Craddick in January and has announced he will run again, said the ruling favored the position of the Craddick opponents.

Unless the Legislature meets again in special session, the legal battle has no impact on Craddick continuing to serve as speaker. When the House reconvenes in January 2009, the constitution requires the body to elect a new speaker.

r.g.ratcliffe@chron.com

By Richard L. Connor rconnor@timesleader.com
Editor and Publisher

AS COINCIDENCE would have it, I was with a friend this past week who is a criminal defense lawyer of national renown and we were discussing everything from law enforcement, the judicial system, and the media.

Almost as important is the topic we were not talking about. We weren’t discussing Luzerne County debit cards and possible misuses of those cards.

But, we traveled that road, too.

The lawyer is in his 60s and has defended his share of the notorious. Among them have been men and women accused of petty crimes, misdemeanors, and the more serious such as stealing and even murder. One case he handled accused the federal government of conspiracy to commit murder. He was on the opposite side of the government.

What is the biggest change in society these days relative to his work, I asked?

“Presumption of innocence,” he said in a blink of the eye. “No such things these days - if there ever was.

He paused.

“No, I take that back,” he said. “It existed back when I started practicing law 40 years ago.”

Now, he says, the presumption from the start is that a person is guilty until proven innocent instead of vice versa.

He said the blame for this switch extends from government, to the judiciary and to the press and what he called its “gotcha journalism.” Cynicism has spread throughout the general populace, he said.

And, he said, even if a person is found to be innocent, the presumption and assumption of guilt hang over the accused like a dark cloud, sometimes forever.

His perspective rang with the sound of truth as we all shifted through the news about the alleged use of steroids among Major League Baseball players.

The probe led by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell has concluded and Thursday’s release of the report said 89 big league baseball players had been implicated in the use of performance-enhancing and illegal drugs.

Among those mentioned were pitcher Roger Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young Award winner, along with seven players who have been selected Most Valuable Players by Major League Baseball. There was at least one player from each of the 30 teams named in the investigation.

Clemens through his attorney denied the allegations, but we all know that he will forever have those among us who believe he is guilty.

This is true even though the main finger-pointing in the investigation was given by two former trainers, Kirk Radowski and Brian McNamee. Who among us is wondering about their motives?

McNamee, according to press reports, agreed to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney’s Office with the assurance he would not be charged of any crimes if he told the truth. Radowski is a convicted criminal who is waiting to be sentenced on federal charges of steroid distribution.

So, you have to ask yourself this: if there is no way to prove the guilt of someone such as Clemens does that mean McNamee did not tell the truth and therefore will be charged?

Of course he won’t. Clemens will live forever under the presumption of guilt.

Here’s how a news story described the Clemens testimony and reaction from his attorney about the report:

“Mr. McNamee is quoted describing how he injected Mr. Clemens with illegal drugs at least 16 times from 1998 through 2001. Mr. Clemens, 45, adamantly denied the report’s accusations of his use of steroids and human growth hormone, his Houston lawyer, Rusty Hardin, said in a telephone interview Thursday night. Mr. Hardin said he had been told Mr. McNamee was pressured to give up names or face prosecution by the IRS Special Agent Jeff Novitzky, who has led the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative and Radomski investigations.

Mr. Hardin criticized Mr. Mitchell for naming players based on uncorroborated allegations. ‘He has thrown a skunk into the jury box, and we will never be able to remove that smell,’ Mr. Hardin said.”

Here, closer to home we now have the federal government announcing it will investigate the possible misuse of debit cards by Luzerne County officials.

The presumption of innocence in these matters would be a refreshing return to values of the past and gentler, less skeptical times.

Richard L. Connor is editor and publisher of The Times Leader. Reach him at rconnor@timesleader.com

By ELLEN TORDESILLAS

Tomorrow, when the Commission on Appointments Defense Committee meets, on the agenda is the promotion of Col. Jonathan Martir to brigadier general.


Tomorrow, when the Commission on Appointments Defense Committee meets, on the agenda is the promotion of Col. Jonathan Martir to brigadier general.

Friday last week, Malaya's editorial, "Toadies crawling out of the woodwork" was about Gloria Arroyo's lapdogs in frenzied competition proving what they can do to be promoted to chief tuta. That's why we have NCR police chief Geary Barias proudly bragging to reporters how he manhandled Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and other Magdalo officers after the Manila Peninsula standoff.

And of course, Martir didn't want to be left behind. Malaya's editorial said, "Martir pulled a macho stunt at the Pen. He manhandled Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and some members of the Magdalo group while they were lying face down on the floor with their hands cuffed. Asked by a member of the CA from the House why he did so, Martir answered that Trillanes and his companions "deserved it."

Who is this Martir? He is known in the military to be very close to AFP chief Hermogenes Esperon.

Sources in the military don't paint a respectable picture of him. I have been provided documents that he was AWOL (absence without leave) for more than two years and yet when he came back from the United States, he was neither reprimanded nor punished for it.

Available records in the Philippine Navy and the Bureau of Immigration show that his authorized leave number only 195 days. But he was absent from service for 945 days.

A brief on Martir that we got says, "Records bear that Col. Martir left the country on five separate occasions, in 1994, in 1997, in 1998, in 2002 and in 2003, all without the necessary travel orders required by law for military personnel and in violation of the Articles of War ( A.W. 62).

"On four separate occasions, he had exceeded his authorized leave – most significant of which was when he exceeded his leave by more than a year or 477 days to be precise, and, yet, the Corps never, in any of the cases,mentioned declared him AWOL or dropped him from the rolls as deserter, much less, have him investigated on his unauthorized absences."

From comments in my blog of people who know him, one can have an idea of Martir's character:

Juggernaut, who had interacted with Martir when the latter was a tactical officer, said: "He mostly kept to himself, a very mysterious character. One thing you can't miss is the way he strikes a pose in uniform in public, almost contrived or choreographed (he still does, funny, old habits never die). The battalion he handled probably had the most gruesome "hazing" cases at the time.

On his manhandling of Trillanes and other Magdalo officers, an officer texted me, "Not surprising, for a wife beater."

Another Marines officer said, "Let him be assigned to Mindanao. Iiyak yan. He is known to shoot only at target papers. Takot yan sa kalaban who could shoot back at him also. Behind his back, he is the butt of jokes among Marines."

Another related an incident when Martir had a tiff with another officer from Iloilo. A third officer was trying to appease them but Martir would not be contained. He was really raring for a fight. So the peacemaker left. Left alone to fight the Ilonggo officer, Martir ran away.

One of the detained officers in Camp Capinpin told me that Martir talked to him and offered him a deal in connection with the mutiny case related to the February 2006 alleged plan to withdraw support from the bogus Arroyo presidency. The deal was: Pin down Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda, Col. Ariel Querubin and the other top Marines officers and I'll dismiss the case against you. The officer declined. He told Martir, "Only rats do that. I'm an officer."

Many I talked with mentioned about Martir's "dark streaks." Maybe some of those might be raised during his confirmation hearing. He will have a chance to deny or clarify them tomorrow.

***

Trixie Angeles, lawyer of Capt. Nicanor Faeldon, who is the object of a military manhunt after the Nov. 29 incident, is confused about the conflicting statements of Gloria Arroyo and Esperon.

Angeles said, "Esperon says that Capt. Nicanor Faeldon and other allegedly fugitive members of the November 29 group are not threats.

"Yet, Mrs. Arroyo has been cited as saying (in her Cabinet teleconference from London) that for as long as there are fugitives from the Manila Pen incident, they remain threats to her leadership and the public safety. Malacañang has approved a P1 million peso reward for information leading to his capture. A joint task force has been created with the AFP and PNP joining forces. The Coast Guard has been called in and SouthCom is on the alert for him. It's a manhunt and the net is spreading wide."

Angeles said this only indicates that "clearly someone is feeling threatened.

"Perhaps it would be appropriate to call Mr. Esperon to this one fact: Capt. Nicanor Faeldon is no hardened criminal. He is not a murderer nor a rapist nor a kidnapper. Unlike others with bounties on their heads, Capt. Faeldon's alleged crime is to dissent from this government's continuing illegitimacy and rampant corruption.

"Yet Malacanang still holds out that one million peso reward. Could it be that they — Mr. Esperon, Mrs. Arroyo, Mr. Razon, et al — believe that telling the truth in times like these, is a dangerously subversive act?"