32nd Bellin Run

Bellin Run legends lace up for 32nd race

The night before the first Bellin Run in 1977, a young Michael Dorsey read about the race in the newspaper and made a last-minute decision to participate.

Today, Dorsey will participate in his 32nd Bellin Run 10K. Dorsey has a knee injury, but isn't letting it stop him from participating — he will walk the race's 6.2 miles on crutches.

Dorsey is one of 22 Bellin Run Legends, a group of participants who have not missed a race in Bellin Run's history, which began in 1977.

"We've done this for so long that we don't even think about not participating in the race anymore," Dorsey said. "Every year, Bellin Run weekend is marked in our calendars."

The Legends will be wearing a red racing bib this year to distinguish them from the rest of the expected 15,000 participants.

"This is a very special group of people," said Randy Van Straten, Bellin Run race director. "These runners have been committed to the schedule, stayed in shape and managed to make it to every race for 31 consecutive years."

Original Source : http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080614/GPG0101/806140577/1978/GPGbusiness

Becky Hammon scored 17 points

Becky Hammon scored 17 points, including an uncontested layup with 1:12 left, and the San Antonio Silver Stars rallied from a 12-point deficit to beat the Seattle Storm 74-69 on Friday night.

Hammon's basket, set up when Sophia Young stole Seattle's Sue Bird pass near the basket, put the Silver Stars (5-4) ahead 69-65.

Lauren Jackson then scored on a baseline drive and made a free throw to cut San Antonio's lead to 69-68 with 48 seconds remaining.

Jackson was whistled for fouling Young with 25 seconds to go and 2 seconds left on the shot clock. Young made both free throws to put San Antonio ahead 71-68.

``I don't think it was a foul. Whatever,'' Jackson said. ``They're going to call some. I was just doing my thing, playing, trying not to foul.''

Bird, who led Seattle (7-4) with 21 points, made a free throw to make it a two-point game. She fouled Vickie Johnson to stop the clock, but Johnson made both free throws to give the Silver Stars a 73-69 edge.

``We had it right there and just let it go,'' Jackson said. ``But (San Antonio) is so crafty with the ball, especially Becky. She hit some big shots.''

Bird's 17 first-half points - on 6-of-9 shooting including three 3-pointers - gave the Storm a 12-point lead early in the third quarter.

``Sue Bird was nearly unstoppable in the first half,'' Silver Stars coach Dan Hughes said. ``They really delivered a blow to us. Tonight is a quality win, and we were very fortunate to make that last run.''

The Silver Stars, who shot 35 percent in the first half, made their last five shots of the third quarter - including 3-pointers from Hammon and Helen Darling - and went into the fourth trailing 56-53.

San Antonio tied it 56-56 just 1:10 into the final quarter on Young's shot from the top of the key.

Johnson had 16 points, and Young added 15.

Original Source : http://www.usatoday.com/sports/scores108/108165/WNBA796532.htm

Flag Day

Today is flag day, the anniversary of the flag resolution, or when it was determined that the Stars and Stripes would become the official flag of the United States.

On May 30, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a presidential proclamation declaring that June 14 be celebrated as the official Flag Day.

The day commemorates the adoption of the Stars and Stripes as the official flag of the United States.

On June 14, 1777, John Adams spoke about the flag at a meeting of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. He said, "Resolved, that the flag of the thirteen United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a new constellation."

There have been twenty-seven versions of the flag over the years; stars have been added to it as states have entered the Union. The current version dates to July 4, 1960, when Hawaii became the 50th state.

Source: The Library of Congress

Original Source : http://www.digtriad.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=105393&catid=216

Discovery Space Shuttle Cleared For Landing

A sign along a road at Kennedy Space Center illustrates that something special is afoot at the facility Saturday.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

Discovery has landed. At precisely 11:15 and 19 seconds a.m. EDT Saturday, the Space Shuttle completed its 5.7 million mile journey by touching down here. Stay tuned for a story and photos.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.--"Discovery, you are go for deorbit burn."

With those words, spoken at 9:48 a.m. EDT by someone at Mission Control in Houston and heard here over a loudspeaker system, we all got the good word that Space Shuttle Discovery, which has been on a two-week mission to the International Space Station, has gotten its clearance to land.

This is good news because there's a whole bunch of media gathered here, where I've come on Road Trip 2008, expressly for the purpose of documenting the Shuttle's landing. It's safe to say there would have been a lot of grumbling if the landing had been scrubbed, as was certainly a possibility if the weather here had been less than ideal.

But a few scattered clouds aside, it's a beautiful day on the Florida coast, and so unless something radical changes in the next hour and 19 minutes, we're going to get treated to the blur of the Shuttle zipping by at high speed on the runway in front of us.

Of course, when it comes to the race to capture images of this momentous event, I am seriously out-gunned by most of my fellow media colleagues here.

I'm a little intimidated by the camera equipment my media colleagues here at Kennedy Space Center have brought. Their giant lenses make my little 70-300m lens seem puny by comparison.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

It's not that I don't have some decent camera equipment, carrying as I am a Nikon D60 digital SLR and a 70-300mm telephoto lens. It's just that this is really good equipment for, say, shooting pictures of players on a field at a baseball game. For a fan.

All around me, though, are camerapeople with truly impressive lenses. Tripods that hold multiple cameras. Heck, one guy pulled his monstrous lens out of a sleeve almost bigger than my backpack.

So, getting some good shots of the Shuttle as it rolls by on the runway far in front of us is going to be a challenge. But I'm up to it.

And at precisely 10:10 a.m. EDT, the deorbit burn began, 218 statute miles above the Indian Ocean. The landing is on.

So stay tuned to this space. If all goes well, in a couple hours, I'll be posting about the landing and, fingers crossed, including some nice photos.

Wish me luck.

Original Source : http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-9968851-52.html

Men fillet Charlie the Tuna statue in Oregon

What began as a prank ended with a sort of chain-saw massacre

Lisa Campbell and her mother, Mel Campbell, look over the pieces of Charlie the Tuna on June 6 behind a fire station in Charleston.

CHARLESTON, Ore. - It turns out the fate of Charlie the Tuna of Charleston, Ore., was sorry indeed. The 8-foot Monterey cypress sculpture that used to greet visitors to the coastal fishing town was filleted by two young men who stole it as a prank and then, panicked they would be found out, took chain saws to it.

Not that Charlie would have lasted much longer anyway, the town learned, what with the way bugs and rot had hollowed out his innards.

The statue stood beside the South Slough Bridge into Charleston until Mark Santos and Marvin Terry Jr. swiped it last month.

"We had planned to wait a little while and then leave Charlie in a random place in town where he could be returned unharmed," they said in an apology letter published in The World of Coos Bay.

But someone tipped off sheriff's deputies, who started nosing around. Santos and Terry rushed to their hiding place and tried to move Charlie. But the statue wouldn't fit in their truck.

"We decided to chop him up so we could move him," they said. "This was not pre-planned."

Deputies caught them in the act and charged them with theft and criminal mischief.

Mel Campbell of the merchants association had painted Charlie many times over the years — he was in blue with an orange hat, after the StarKist ads' Charlie.

Santos has paid her a visit, and Campbell is asking for leniency.

"This was just a terrible, dumb, stupid prank that went absolutely wrong," she said.

A wake is planned Saturday at the town's visitors center. The Wild Women of Charleston and the Tuna Guys will offer musical moments. The remains are to be burned and buried at the center.

Mourners are invited to share stories about Charlie, and tuna recipes.

Original Source : http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25130298/?GT1=43001