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David Mohney, former dean of the UK's College of Design, has been nominated as first faculty member for the chair that will become a focal point for new research and a graduate degree in social entrepreneurialism.

The UK Board of Trustees on Friday accepted the donation from the Curry Stone Foundation established by Clifford Curry, a 1970 graduate of the then-UK College of Architecture, and his wife, Delight Stone, of Salem, Ore. Stone is a historical archaeologist and community activist.

College of Design dean Michael Speaks said the Curry Stone Design Prize will be used to reward outstanding design in architecture, urban planning or product design anywhere in the world. He expects it to achieve the status of the prestigious $100,000 Pritzker Architecture Prize that honors a living architect for an outstanding body of work.

The prize will be presented for the first time at the 2008 IdeaFestival in September in Louisville. Whereas the Pritzker is awarded at the end of an architect's career, the Curry Stone Prize will be given at the front end, to encourage new ideas, Curry said in a telephone conversation from his home in Oregon.

The Kentucky Higher Education Student Loan Corp., better known as The Student Loan People, announced Friday it was suspending loans to first-time borrowers because the national credit crisis has dried up a lot of money previously available for student loans.

The agency has about 55,000 student borrowers a year. A news release said it would continue to make student loans to current or previous borrowers, based on the availability of funds.

The estimated 27,000 affected borrowers include current students and some who are planning to enroll this fall at the state's public universities, community and technical colleges, private colleges and universities and proprietary, or for-profit, institutions.

The Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority, a sister agency, announced it will pay the 1 percent default fee on student loans, effective May 1, to encourage lenders to make more loans available to Kentucky students.

U.S. District Judge Chuck Chambers' ruling came Thursday following a telephone hearing on a petition filed by the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and several other groups. The petition sought a temporary restraining order against the permits. The petition alleged that the permits "suffer from the same defects" that Chambers cited in 2007 when he rescinded permits issued to four Massey Energy Co. mines. The petition also alleged the corps had refused to provide the groups with copies of two of the permits.

Former Pvt. Steven D. Green may challenge how execution administrators are trained and how drugs are administered if he is convicted.

"While use of the specific chemicals in the Kentucky protocol was approved, the legal issues in lethal injection as a method of execution go beyond the types of drugs used," wrote Green's lawyers, federal public defenders Scott Wendelsdorf and Patrick Bouldin, along with attorney Darren Wolff.

Green is scheduled to face trial on April 27, 2009. Green, 22, of Midland, Texas, faces a possible death sentence if convicted on 16 charges that include premeditated murder and aggravated sexual assault. He pleaded not guilty in November 2006.

Green's lawyers filed three motions on Friday, reasserting that the federal death penalty is legally flawed, that Green should be tried in military court and that the federal death penalty statute is unconstitutional. They previously made the arguments in February, when they asked U.S. District Judge Thomas Russell to dismiss the case.

Beshear said Friday that "the only way" he would call a special session is if legislative leaders "get their act together and sit down with us and we come up with an agreed-upon piece of legislation that we all would stand up ahead of time and say we will support this and we will pass this."

He added, "I'm not going to waste the taxpayers' money calling a special session just so we can come up and argue about it again."

If an agreement can be reached in advance, said Beshear, "I'm willing to call them back in for a minimal amount of time. I believe that is five days to pass a bill."

Only the governor can call a special session and set its agenda. A special session would cost taxpayers about $60,000 a day.

The changes stem from a Jan. 2, 2006, methane gas explosion at West Virginia's Sago Mine that resulted in the deaths of 12 miners, and from a May 20, 2006, explosion at the Darby Mine No. 1 in Harlan County, Ky., that killed five. Both explosions occurred in sealed sections of the mines.

On Friday, the Mine Safety and Health Administration published final rules that require underground seals to withstand pressures of at least 50 pounds per square inch. The old standard was 20 psi, but MSHA imposed the 50 psi standard last year on an emergency basis.

Mine operators also must monitor for explosive gases in sealed-off areas, but only if seals can't withstand forces of up to 120 psi. If an explosive condition is discovered, miners must be withdrawn from the work area or the mine.

Monitoring is not required for seals built to withstand forces of 120 psi or greater.

The attorney for Lino Nakwa said she was told by U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth's office on Friday that the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Service is reconsidering its decision.

"This is great news," said the lawyer, Teresa Powell, of Kentucky Refugee Ministries.

The agency's decision of residency sparked outrage at Transylvania University, where Nakwa is a successful and popular student. In his fight to stay in the United States, Nakwa has won other allies in Congress, including Sens. Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning and U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler.

A spokesman for the immigration agency, Mary Lou Cabrera, confirmed that it is reconsidering its denial of a green card for Nakwa, which could have led to his deportation.

Judge Susan Braden of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., recommended that Congress appropriate at least $34,303,980.42 in restitution for land and mineral rights lost by the landowners when the government appropriated their land to create Camp Breckinridge.

Braden issued a 53-page ruling late Friday, saying the amount represents only 27 percent of the $127 million benefit the government received from taking the land and mineral rights.

"In considering this recommendation, Congress should be mindful that the entire amount of revenue that the Government received for the lease and sale of these rights is unknown, because the Government failed to produce or destroyed relevant documents that would verify the correct amount," Braden wrote.

The long-running dispute over Camp Breckinridge involves more than 1,000 former landowners and their families in western Kentucky brought against the U.S. government in 1993.

The allergic student, also an eighth-grader, did not eat the cookies and did not suffer a reaction.

Fayette County public schools spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall said the incident occurred Thursday on the Morton Middle School running track, where students had gone to eat lunch and enjoy the warm weather.

As the students neared the end of their lunchtime, a student was seen putting the crumbled cookies in the allergic student's lunchbox, she said.

It was well known the other student suffered from severe peanut allergies, Deffendall said. There was no known history of problems between the two 13-year-old students, she said.

The Kentucky Higher Education Student Loan Corp. said Friday it's unable to secure money for new loans right now, meaning thousands of students may have to turn to private lenders to pay for their education.

The announcement is adding to the financial worries of some college-bound students.

Christina Filer, 17, a senior at Fern Creek High School in Louisville, said she was looking into taking out a loan through the state to attend the University of Louisville in the fall.

"It's crazy," she said. "We've all worked hard, and we want to continue our education."

Judge Susan Braden of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., recommended that Congress appropriate at least $34,303,980.42 in restitution for land and mineral rights lost by the landowners when the government appropriated their land to create Camp Breckinridge.

Braden issued a 53-page ruling late Friday, saying the amount represents only 27 percent of the $127 million benefit the government received from taking the land and mineral rights.

"In considering this recommendation, Congress should be mindful that the entire amount of revenue that the Government received for the lease and sale of these rights is unknown, because the Government failed to produce or destroyed relevant documents that would verify the correct amount," Braden wrote.

The long-running dispute over Camp Breckinridge involves more than 1,000 former landowners and their families in western Kentucky brought against the U.S. government in 1993.

NATION

BUSH OPENS TALKS WITH SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT

President Bush and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak opened two days of talks on Friday focusing on North Korea's unfulfilled pledge to disclose its nuclear activities and a U.S. free-trade deal with South Korea that faces an uphill battle in Congress. Bush hopes to strengthen sometimes-shaky U.S.-South Korea ties under Lee, a pro-American conservative who took office in late February and made the United States his first overseas trip. Their get-to-know-you meeting took on renewed importance when South Korea announced Friday that it would lift its ban on U.S. beef imports. South Korea was the third-largest foreign market for U.S. beef before it banned imports in December 2003 over the possibility of mad cow disease.

NEW HUD DIRECTOR NAMED

The company, Harland and Wolff of Belfast, Northern Ireland, needed to build the ship quickly and at reasonable cost, which may have compromised quality, said co-author Timothy Foecke. That the shipyard was building two other vessels at the same time added to the difficulty of getting the millions of rivets needed, he added.

"Under the pressure to get these ships up, they ramped up the riveters, found materials from additional suppliers, and some was not of quality," said Foecke, a metallurgist at the U.S. government's National Institute of Standards and Technology who has been studying the Titanic for a decade.

More than 1,500 people died when the Titanic, advertised as an "unsinkable" luxury liner, struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage in 1912 and went down in the North Atlantic less than three hours later.

"The company knowingly purchased weaker rivets, but I think they did it not knowing they would be purchasing something substandard enough that when they hit an iceberg their ship would sink," said co-author Jennifer Hooper McCarty, who started researching the Titanic's rivets while working on her Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University in 1999.

Philip Smith's lawyer, David Aronson, called the video "appalling" and said: "Mr. Smith is a very private person. This is obviously embarrassing."

But in an era when more than one in 10 adult Internet users in the United States have blogs, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, many people are using the Web to tell their side of a marital saga -- and of course, in separation, one person's truth can be another's lie. Despite the legal end of a marriage, the confessions can stretch toward eternity in a steady stream of enraged or despondent postings.

For the blogger, the writing can be therapeutic.

Until the morning her husband, David Sals, told her he "was done" with their marriage, Jennifer Neal had portrayed him so lovingly on her blog that he was called DearSweetDave.

Peters also demanded that the FAA and American Airlines explain to her within 14 days why 250,000 U.S. air travelers endured canceled flights last week. American grounded its MD-80 jetliners and canceled 3,100 flights in order to inspect or redo wiring that was supposed to have been completed between Sept. 5, 2006 and March 5, 2008.

She said she didn't think federal regulators had overreacted in the wake of revelations about the FAA's lax supervision of Southwest Airlines. Last month, it was revealed that the FAA allowed Southwest to fly dozens of Boeing 737s without inspecting them as required for fuselage cracks and that Southwest's system for complying with FAA safety directives had not been inspected by the FAA since 1999.

But Peters wanted to know "why so many aircraft had to be grounded and so many travelers had to be inconvenienced" in order to "help us avoid similar disruptions" as the FAA completes an audit of all major airlines' compliance with safety directives.

The audit was ordered after the Southwest debacle came to light and helped uncover the MD-80 wiring problems.

The auditors' opinion might not bode well for the administration as it battles multiple lawsuits challenging changes it made to the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

The policies made it harder for states to extend government-sponsored health insurance to children whose family's income exceeds 250 percent of the poverty level, or $44,000 for a family of three. Several states want to expand their programs to cover families above that income level.

The Government Accountability Office advised Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., that the administration's policy changes amounted to a rule that should have been submitted to Congress and the comptroller general before going into effect. Instead, the administration sent a letter to state health officials informing them of the changes they were making to the program, which it described as a clarification of existing law.

Nearly a decade ago, Congress passed legislation that gives it the ability to disapprove of broad regulatory rules by passing a joint resolution of disapproval. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services did not follow the process that would allow Congress to take such action, the GAO told Rockefeller.

Police killed Ahmad Shah, also known as Mullah Ismail, at a roadblock near the northwestern city of Peshawar, a senior Pakistani intelligence official said. Two U.S. security officials confirmed Shah's death in a shootout and said Pakistani authorities had his body. All three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

U.S. and Afghan officials have described Shah as the leader of Taliban militants who ambushed a group of U.S. commandos in June 2005 and shot down a Chinook helicopter sent to rescue them. Sixteen American special forces members died on the helicopter. The commander's death could help relations between Pakistan's new civilian government and Washington, which wants it to keep up the pressure on Taliban and al-Qaida operatives inside Pakistan, mainly near the Afghan border.

Together, the six nations that make up the Gulf Cooperation Council are now consuming about as much oil as China, whose thirst for oil frequently gets the blame for tight global supplies.

These GCC countries -- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates -- have grown at a 7 percent annual clip since 2002. They boast a per-citizen income -- $19,000 -- that is three times China's. Demand for oil in the Middle East has risen by almost 6 percent annually since 2004.

Here's what that means for Americans: The Bush administration has leaned on the Saudi Arabian monarchy to step up oil production, but much of the output will stay in the Persian Gulf region to power newly dynamic economies. That means global demand for oil will continue to strain supply. Oil prices are likely to stay high.

For the last three summers, Americans have paid more at the gas pump in part because of this spike in Middle Eastern demand for oil. These increasingly affluent nations have seen enormous summer spikes in demand for air conditioning. A full third of electricity generation in the region comes from oil-fired power plants.

Carter is the most prominent American to hold talks with Khaled Mashaal, whose Palestinian militant group claimed new legitimacy from the meeting along with two other sessions the Nobel laureate held with Hamas leaders in the Middle East this week.

"Political isolation (of Hamas) by the American administration has begun to crumble," Mohammed Nazzal, a top figure in Hamas' political bureau, said after Friday's meeting at Mashaal's Damascus office.

A senior Hamas official in Damascus, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to represent the group publicly, described the meeting as "warm." But he said Carter did not receive a response to either of the two requests the former president made in the session: that Hamas halt its rocket attacks against Israel and that it agree to a meeting with Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai to discuss a prisoner exchange. Hamas said Friday that kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit will "not see the light" until Palestinian prisoners are also released in an exchange.

Carter's convoy arrived at Mashaal's office for the meeting under tight security, and reporters were prevented from getting near the site. The meeting was closed to media, and Carter was not available for comment. Carter, who brokered the 1978 Israeli-Egyptian peace and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, has defended what he calls his personal peace mission. He says Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, must be engaged in order to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

The changes in recent weeks mark a surprising show of government sway -- at least for now -- after an Iraqi-led military crackdown that was plagued by desertions and ragged planning and that ended in a virtual stalemate with Shiite militias in Iraq's second-largest city.

But it's unclear whether the new tone in parts of Basra represents a permanent tilt toward the Iraqi government or just a temporary retreat of Shiite hard-liners challenging the current Baghdad leadership.

During five days of heavy fighting last month, Iraqi troops struggled against militiamen, particularly the Mahdi Army loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The military was plagued by desertions and poor organization -- and, in the end, the offensive was inconclusive with Iran helping mediate a truce. Still, the crackdown appears to have succeeded in giving some sense of government control in Basra.

Two Associated Press employees in Basra interviewed several shopkeepers and other residents on the lifting of some lifestyle restrictions imposed by Shiite hard-liners. The AP also toured four districts around the city to observe the recent changes.

He was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when he came up with the scientific concept that small effects lead to big changes, something that was explained in a simple example known as "the butterfly effect." He explained how something as minuscule as a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil changes the constantly moving atmosphere in ways that could later trigger tornadoes in Texas.

His discovery of "deterministic chaos" brought about "one of the most dramatic changes in mankind's view of nature since Sir Isaac Newton," said the committee that awarded Mr. Lorenz the 1991 Kyoto Prize for basic sciences.

Mr. Lorenz came up with the chaos theory concept in the 1960s through his own meticulous work habits, said Kevin Trenberth, a student of Mr. Lorenz.

Mr. Lorenz inadvertently ran what seemed like the same calculations through an aging computer twice and came up with different answers. When he tried to figure out what happened, he noticed a slight decimal point change, less than 0.0001, wound up leading to significant error. That error became a seminal scientific paper, presented in 1972, about "the butterfly effect."

State District Judge Barbara Walther heard 21 hours of testimony over two days before ruling Friday that the children would be kept in custody while the state continues to investigate allegations of abuse stemming from the teachings of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

"This is but the beginning," Walther said.

She also ordered genetic testing to sort out family relationships that have confounded welfare authorities.

Individual hearings will be set for the children over the next several weeks, and the judge will determine whether they are moved into permanent foster care or can be returned to their parents. All of the hearings must be held by June 5.

The fault zones beneath the Mississippi River Valley have produced some of the largest modern U.S. quakes east of the Rockies, a region covered with old buildings not built to withstand seismic activity.

And, when quakes happen, they're felt far and wide, their vibrations propagated over hundreds of miles of bedrock.

Friday's quake shook things up from Nebraska to Atlanta, rattling nerves but doing little damage and seriously hurting no one. It was a magnitude 5.2 temblor centered just outside West Salem in southeastern Illinois, a largely rural region of small towns that sit over the Wabash fault zone. The area has produced moderately strong quakes as recently as 2002.

But it hasn't been studied to nearly the degree of quake-prone areas west of the Rockies, particularly along the heavily scrutinized Pacific coast.

But Garza's not looking for drug smugglers, human traffickers or illegal immigrants. He's looking for stray livestock that might be carrying a tick, a tiny pest with a deadly disease, into the United States.

"If it doesn't have hooves, it's not our concern," Garza said.

Garza is a veteran of the 61-person U.S. Department of Agriculture "Tick Rider" force, a group that keeps watch over a 700-mile buffer zone along the Rio Grande from Brownsville to Del Rio.

They inspect both foreign strays and native ranch animals for the fever tick, a parasite eradicated from the U.S. 65 years ago that can transmit disease to cattle and could spread to the entire southeastern U.S. if not controlled.

Her fourth-grade teacher couldn't believe it.

"I said 'Morgan, was your daddy hurt in the explosion?'" said Stacie Ortiz, Morgan's teacher at Ebenezer Elementary School. "And she said 'Yes, ma'am, but they took him to the hospital and he's going to be fine.'"

Ortiz knew better. Paul Seckinger, a single father who has custody of Morgan, was in critical condition with burns over 80 percent of his body at a burn center in Augusta while Morgan was left in the care of her great-grandparents.

She enlisted Morgan for a special project - one that would raise money to help her father and other victims of the Feb. 7 explosion and fire at the Imperial Sugar refinery near Savannah. Some of her classmates' parents also worked there.

On a highly personal day, he spoke of his own "spiritual poverty" and said he hoped to be a worthy successor to St. Peter, considered the first pope.

Benedict began the day with a Mass at St. Patrick's cathedral, the landmark Roman Catholic church on Fifth Avenue. The building was packed with cardinals ands bishops, priests and nuns, who cheered him to mark the day he succeeded Pope John Paul II on April 19, 2005.

The German-born pope lamented that what he called "the joy of faith" was often choked by cynicism, greed and violence. Yet he drew an analogy to show how faith can overcome distractions and trials.

"The spires of St. Patrick's Cathedral are dwarfed by the skyscrapers of the Manhattan skyline, yet in the heart of this busy metropolis they are a vivid reminder of the constant yearning of the human spirit to rise to God," he said.

Frustrated and desperate, the native of the Dominican Republic sought help from a Spanish-speaking hospital maintenance worker. He wasn't able to help either; Torres eventually asked a friend to leave work to interpret.

The New York Immigration Coalition and other groups released a report this week on the availability of language assistance at city hospitals for non-English-speaking patients - a vexing problem in a city where roughly 2 million people speak little or no English.

The report says that such help at hospitals seems to have improved since 2006, when state health officials began regulating communication between hospitals and their non-English-speaking patients, but more still needs to be done, particularly regarding languages such as Korean, Haitian Creole, Russian, Arabic and Bengali.

For people who don't speak English, the language barrier makes it difficult for them to explain symptoms, understand doctors' diagnoses and navigate the insurance system, advocates said. The barrier can lead to misdiagnoses and even death, they said. Mistaken amputations, sterilizations and abortions have resulted from such barriers, they said.

The attack on April 19, 1995, is the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.

"The evil act perpetrated here illustrated the depths of human depravity," Gov. Brad Henry said. "But Oklahomans met tragedy with triumph. From such a horrible crime came tales of astounding goodness."

At 9:02 a.m., the moment of the bombing, people attending the service observed 168 seconds of silence for each of the bombing's victims. Victims' names also were read aloud.

Before the ceremony, relatives of the victims placed wreaths and mementos on the memorial's symbolic glass and bronze chairs, each one representing a victim of the bombing.

A successor to the charity she selected rediscovered her bequest when it dusted off its archives, but the free bed is long gone. Now, Children's Friend and Service is suing to get the health care back.

The hospital says it already provides millions of dollars in free care, but the charity said it needs to do more to fulfill the pledge it made to Lippitt 96 years ago.

"It just seems illogical to me that a quote-unquote 'permanent free bed,' which by its very name suggests that it is to last forever, can somehow not last forever," said Mark Swirbalus, a lawyer for the organization.

If it had been modestly invested, Swirbalus said, Lippitt's donation could be worth about $1.5 million today.

Antionette Smith Epps left the staff Friday "to pursue other career opportunities," the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services said in a statement.

The county characterized Smith Epps' departure as a resignation, but department spokesman Michael Wilson said she received a severance package equal to one year's pay.

Smith Epps earned $261,000 a year, making her one of the county's highest-paid employees.

No details concerning the circumstances of her departure were released.

No deaths were immediately reported as 42,000 residents in five major cities were evacuated, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

By Saturday afternoon, China's first typhoon this year had weakened to a tropical storm and moved into the western part of Guangdong province.

Neoguri began lashing Hainan's northeastern coast late Friday with gusts of up to 38 miles per hour, blacking out the city of Wenchang and stranding about 3,000 passengers at the island's main airport in Haikou, Xinhua reported.

At least 18 fishermen were missing, but Xinhua said rescue teams found 38 other fishermen who went missing while trying to flee the storm in the South China Sea. When their boats were damaged, the fishermen swam to a reef and were able to wait out the storm there, the report said.

It was the second time in a row - and the third since 2003 - that the Soyuz landing went awry.

Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin said the condition of the crew - South Korean bioengineer Yi So-yeon, American astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko - was satisfactory, though the three had been subjected to severe G-forces during the re-entry.

The Russian TMA-11 craft touched down at 4:51 a.m. EDT about 260 miles off target, Lyndin said, a highly unusual distance given how precisely engineers plan for such landings. It was also around 20 minutes later than scheduled. Search helicopters then took 25 minutes to locate the capsule and determine the crew was unharmed.

Officials said the craft followed a so-called "ballistic re-entry" - a very steep trajectory that subjects the crew to extreme physical force. Lyndin said the crew had experienced gravitational forces up to 10 times those on Earth during the descent.

The twin blasts, just hours before the Jewish Passover holiday, wounded 13 Israeli soldiers in what Hamas said was an attempt to break the nearly yearlong blockade of the territory. Four Hamas assailants died, Israeli officials said.

Meanwhile, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter met with senior Hamas leaders in Damascus, Syria, for a second day to hear their views, defying U.S. and Israeli warnings that doing so would grant the group legitimacy. The U.S. and Israel have labeled Hamas a terrorist organization.

An Israeli army commander said the Hamas operation was the most ambitious since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, even though another planned attempt at the border was averted Saturday. The attack was the fifth on a crossing by Gaza militants since last week, and Hamas threatened to target the passages again.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak later visited the area. "When the time comes, Hamas will bear the consequences," Barak warned, in comments quoted by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on its Web site.

But amid the tenuous calm, aid groups say they are just buying time - and long-term solutions seem remote in the desperately poor nation.

"The beans might last four days," said Jervais Rodman, an unemployed carpenter with three children who emerged from a churchyard Friday with small bags of food. "The rice will be gone as soon as I get home."

Rodman was one of the lucky ones. Luis Elaine, 48, clutched an empty sack after being told at the same church that there was no food left. Many distribution centers simply ran out.

"I just hope God will provide something," Elaine said.

Hundreds of friends, family members and schoolmates attended the service for Elim Christian College student Floyd Fernandes - one of seven people killed Tuesday when they were overwhelmed by floodwaters streaming down the Mangatepopo River after a violent rainstorm in central North Island.

Four other students and their outdoors instructor survived.

The group was on a high school expedition in a wilderness canyon that was supposed to build team spirit and environmental awareness.

The tragedy has shocked many New Zealanders.

The allergic student, another eighth-grader, did not eat the cookies and did not suffer a reaction.

However, even trace amounts of peanut oil can cause severe reactions and even death. Symptoms can include hives, welts and swelling that can restrict airways. Earlier this month, it was reported that a 13-year-old boy died in Australia at a school camp due to an allergic reaction to peanuts.

Letters went home Friday to parents of Morton students notifying them of the incident, according to a press release.

The incident occurred Thursday out on the school's running track, where students had gone to eat lunch and enjoy the warm weather, Fayette Schools spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall said. As the students neared the end of their lunch time, a student was seen putting the crumbled cookies in the allergic student's lunch box, she said.

Two fields in New Jersey were closed this week after state health officials detected what they said were unexpectedly high levels of lead in the synthetic turf and raised fears that athletes could swallow or inhale fibers or dust from the playing surface.

The artificial-turf industry denied its products are dangerous. But the CPSC it is investigating.

"We have a great deal of interest into any consumer product that could be used by children where children could potentially be in harm's way because of lead exposure," CPSC spokesman Scott Wolfson said.

The United States has about 3,500 synthetic playing fields made of various materials, including nylon and polyethylene, and about 800 are installed each year at schools, colleges, parks and stadiums, according to the industry's Synthetic Turf Council.

Scientists said the resulting earthquake, which was felt throughout Kentucky and across much of the central United States at 5:37 a.m. EDT, rated a 5.2 on the Richter scale.

That's considered moderate. No one was injured and there was only minor damage, including some bricks that fell from a building in Louisville.

It rattled people sleeping in their beds or having their first cup of coffee in Lexington, 185 miles away.

It also sparked countless conversations throughout the rest of the day: Did you feel it? What did you think it was? Did your dog warn you before it happened? What is this, Kentuckyfornia?

A police accident report released Friday says 18-year-old Connie Blount was thrown across a street after being struck last Sunday by a truck at an intersection. She was taken to UK Hospital, where she later died from multiple injuries. Blount was a freshman from Park City, Utah, and was on UK's equestrian team.

It's not clear why Blount stopped in the middle of the street. At the time, she was walking with a friend, who was not injured.

Connie Blount's father, Jack Blount, says his daughter was wearing heels and might have had more trouble getting across the street than her friend.

Police have not discussed the case since Monday.

Mr. Houlihan served as vice president of development at Transylvania University, was appointed Commissioner of Parks, Housing and Economic Development in 1978 and was president of the Greater Lexington Chamber of Commerce. He is credited with getting the Lexington History Museum organized and, until November, was its president.

In December, the Downtown Lexington Corp. gave Mr. Houlihan its 2007 Outstanding Individual Award for contributions to "the growth, vitality and appeal of downtown."

Then-Mayor Jim Amato appointed Mr. Houlihan as head of parks, housing and economic development in 1978. "I trusted him with everything," Amato said.

It was Mr. Houlihan's idea to have Picnic With the Pops at the Kentucky Horse Park. "He took me out there and figured out how to set it up," Amato said. "Then the parks department went out and set up the tables."

Students sat on a bench around the walls of a metal building on one edge of the garage, waiting their turn to climb a four-step ladder and peer at lunar craters through a 20-inch telescope. They also looked at Saturn, which the telescope transformed from a star-like point of light to a globe with rings.

The university's new MacAdam Student Observatory is open for business.

From the street below, the observatory's rotating dome looks like some alien space-ship that has chosen an odd place to land. Students have been attending classes there since the telescope achieved what astronomers call "first light" on Jan. 23. A grand-opening ceremony and ribbon-cutting are planned for April 30 -- during daylight hours.

This summer, the observatory is expected to be open to the public one or two nights a month. There will be extended public schedules when there is something special, such as a comet, in the sky.

Nakwa said Friday afternoon that he got the news from Holly Holland, a Louisville book editor involved in immigration issues.

Stuart Perelmuter, a spokesman for Yarmuth, confirmed that Nakwa's case will be reviewed by the office of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Perelmuter declined to elaborate.

The development followed a statement from the offices of U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Lexington, and U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Louisville, that they are asking Chertoff to give Nakwa "full, fair and prompt consideration of his case."

Nakwa, 29, was elated.

Urban County Councilman David Stevens is spearheading an effort to review the "persistent problems" with the current law and to recommend the first revisions to the public indoor smoking ban since it was implemented in April 2004.

Problems with the law include enforcement issues such as gathering the proper documentation to prosecute a smoking ban citation in the courts and whether the patron doing the smoking or the business where the patron is smoking should be cited for violating the ban.

The largest problem is the bingo halls and whether high school booster clubs that run bingo should be considered private organizations, which are exempt from the smoking ban, Stevens said.

In January, Fayette Circuit Judge James Ishmael affirmed a 2005 district court ruling that found that booster clubs qualify as private organizations, which means bingo players can light up while playing in booster club fund-raisers.

But Taylor cast her eyes downward. She was thinking about her son, Dominic O. Faulkner, who had been shot and killed hours earlier. "I talked to him last night. He told me he loved me," she said.

Faulkner, 20, of Lexington, was shot multiple times about 2:15 p.m. Friday on Whitney Avenue, near Lexington Cemetery off Newtown Pike. He was taken to the University of Kentucky hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

No arrests had been made as of Friday night.

Investigators were interviewing people in the residential area, Lt. James Curless said. Faulkner was involved in an altercation when he was shot, the Fayette County Coroner's Office said.

FORMER UK PLAYER ARRESTED IN BEATING

A former University of Kentucky football player was arrested a little after 2 a.m. Friday outside Main Street Live nightclub, 367 East Main Street, after he allegedly beat another man unconscious. Jamil Paris, 20, was arrested after he allegedly tried to punch officers and was Tasered, according to police. Paris pleaded not guilty to charges of assault, resisting arrest, menacing and disorderly conduct at an arraignment Friday in Fayette District Court. He is to appear in court again on Tuesday. Paris played for the Wildcats the past two seasons and in both of UK's Music City Bowl victories. The sophomore from Florida left the team at the end of the season because of a medical condition, Coach Rich Brooks said.

COMMENT ON EPA SETTLEMENT

Monday is the last day Lexington residents can weigh in on the city's $250 million to $300 million settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency. Comments can be mailed to the assistant attorney general, Environmental and Natural Resources Division, P.O. Box 7611, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. 20044 or e-mail pubcomment-ees. enrd@usdoj.gov. All comments should refer to United States and Commonwealth of Kentucky vs. Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, Civil Action No. 5:06-CV-00386-KSF, D.J. ref. 90-5-1-108858. The consent decree can be reviewed at the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, 260 West Vine Street, or at www.usdoj.gov/enrd/Consent_ Decrees.html or Kentucky.com.

You never know who you might see.

In pre-retirement life, they were a judge, a restaurant owner, a corporate executive, a fire captain and even the University of Kentucky police officer who guarded Coach Adolph Rupp.

Now, during Keeneland's April and October racing meets, they work long days for modest wages opening doors and helping people get where they need to be. Some move to Lexington for the privilege. And they seem to enjoy every minute of it.

"We used to come down here for long 3-B weekends," said Albert P. Horrigan, a retired state district court judge from Flint, Mich. "You know -- betting, bourbon and burgoo."

Liggins impressed onlookers with his passing, shooting and athleticism. That left one big question: Can he gain his academic eligibility to wow UK fans next season?

"It's coming along well," Liggins said of the effort to become academically eligible. "I'm on the verge of qualifying."

Liggins took a college entrance exam last Saturday. "I feel good about that," he said.

If he came to Louisville to impress UK fans, Liggins would not admit it. He spoke of a more grounded aspiration.

ab r h bi ab r h bi

Barnes lf 5 1 1 0 Wiley lf 4 2 2 0

Townsend 3b 5 1 2 1 Cowgill cf 2 3 2 0

Figueroa ss 5 1 1 0 Carroll rf/1b 4 2 3 5

BLUE TEAM

Coaches -- Joker Phillips, Jimmy Heggins, Chuck Smith, Chris Thurmond, Dontae Wright.

Offensive linemen -- Billy Joe Murphy, Dustin Luck, Jorge Gonzalez, Michael Williams, Stuart Hines, Justin Jeffries, Marcus Davis, Christian Johnson, Garry Williams.

Tight ends -- Ross Bogue, Andre Henderson.

SEC All GB

Georgia 13-3 26-12 --

South Carolina 10-6 28-10 3

Florida 9-7 24-14 4