Fredricks, Wolf win at WCup speedskating event

Jenny Wolf of Germany won the women's 100 and 500-meter races Sunday, while Tucker Fredricks of the United States gained his first win of this season in taking the men's 500 at the Kolomna Speedskating Center.

Wolf continued her domination in the women's short-distance events, winning her eighth of ten 500-meter races in a new track record of 37.67 seconds. She also clocked 10.33 seconds to remain unbeaten in three 100-meter races this season.

China's Jin Peiyu and Yu Jing trailed Wolf in the 500, clocking 38.01 and 38.13 respectively. Judith Hesse was .23 seconds behind her teammate to take second place in the 100. China's Xing Aihua was third, 0.03 …

Entrance hall should exude welcome charm

One space in the house often ignored is the entrance hall.

What a shame. It's important because it is the first room yousee when you enter the home, and the last one when you're leaving.

If the space is available, a console table serves well as acatchall for the mail, a purse or whatever one needs to depositinside the doorway. A mirror for last-minute primping and anumbrella stand are functional pieces.

But none of these is as important as the background, the color,the lighting and the decorative rug in creating a welcoming effecttothe entrance.

This is no space for hand-me-downs. The entrance hall shouldmake a design statement; one that …

Nike 1st-Quarter Profit Drops 13 Percent

BEAVERTON, Ore. - Nike Inc. beat Wall Street estimates Thursday despite a 13 percent slide in profit for the first quarter as stock option expenses and sales costs outstripped revenue growth for the world's largest athletic shoe and clothing maker.

Earnings for the quarter ended Aug. 31 fell to $377.2 million, or $1.47 per share, from $432.3 million, or $1.61 per share, for the same period last year.

But earnings per share still surpassed the $1.42 estimate by analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

Profit would have been higher if not for $40.8 million in stock option expenses that Nike reported to comply with recent changes in accounting rules, the company and …

Meltdown 101: Changing work force, by the numbers

When Labor Day arrives Monday, it will be celebrated by a work force that has changed radically since the same holiday in 2008.

Over the past year, the labor market has suffered its most wrenching changes in a generation, shedding millions of jobs and changing the profile of the more than 131 million people who head to work every day.

American workers are older than they used to be, working fewer hours at cash-strapped companies and less likely to be unionized. And far more are now out looking for a job, and spending longer periods of time on the job hunt.

The rapid change has come on top of longer-term transformations. In 1959, nearly 30 percent …

Karpov takes chess timeout

LONDON (AP) The ninth game of the world chess championship waspostponed yesterday when challenger Anatoly Karpov took his firsttimeout. Play will resume tomorrow.

Each …

BOOK MARKS

BOOK MARKS

"If there is a central thread [in my work] it is the leitmotif of those who survived, those who were destroyed, and those who come after them."

- Abba Kovner, March 1975.

Abba Kovner, ghetto resistance commander (at age 25) of Jewish partisans in Vilna and the forests during World War ?, leading figure in the post-war Brichah movement that brought the remnant of European Jewry to Palestine, Givati Brigade information officer in Israel's War of Independence, major Hebrew poet, founderdesigner of several Jewish museums, was at the storm-center of Jewish history from 193949, a decade that detennined (his critics alleged overdetermined) his subsequent nearly …

Celtics hold off Lakers 108-102, take 2-0 lead

The Boston Celtics left the comforts of home exalted and exhausted, halfway to hoisting a 17th NBA championship banner. They're up 2-0 in the NBA finals. Paul Pierce, darting around the parquet floor with ease, scored 28 points, unknown Leon Powe added 21 and the Celtics held off a remarkable rally by Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers for a 108-102 win Sunday night in Game 2 of these trip-down-memory-lane finals.

The Celtics had to work every second to get the win.

Up by 24 points in the fourth quarter, they nearly blew it.

"We're happy because we won, but we definitely learned a lesson," Pierce said.

The Lakers trailed …