(CNN) -- Playing Meadow Soprano on HBO's pilot of "The Sopranos" was the role of a lifetime for then-16-year-old Jamie-Lynn Sigler, an unknown actress from Long Island, New York.But little did anyone know that when the show debuted in 1999, Sigler was on the verge of taking her life due to her struggle with an eating disorder."I seriously contemplated suicide," said the actress, who now goes by her married name -- Jamie-Lynn DiScala in an interview with CNN's Paula Zahn. "I felt that no one in this world would ever understand the constant battle I had in my head every day."Exercise bulimia 'interrupts your life'DiScala was suffering from exercise bulimia. Exercise bulimics work out to "purge" what they have eaten in much the same way bulimics vomit after eating. Chronic, obsessive exercise is accompanied by a vigilant, nearly compulsive focus on calories.Doctors are still learning about this form of bulimia and there are no strict guidelines for diagnosing this disorder."The difference between a lot of exercise and exercise bulimia is when an individual is willing to cancel their whole life to fit in exercise," said psychologist Douglas Bunnell, past president of the National Association of Eating Disorders and clinical director of the Renfrew Center of Connecticut. "Whether it's missing work or a meeting to fit in that long workout, exercise bulimia functionally impairs and interrupts your life."DiScala said her battle with the disorder began when her high school boyfriend broke up with her. Devastated and depressed, she started to question her looks and her body. She became concerned about every calorie that went into her mouth and obsessed with burning every last one through exercise."I started maybe just doing like 20 minutes on the treadmill before school and then deciding on I wasn't gonna have any dessert anymore," she recalled.DiScala was encouraged by the resulting weight loss."When I saw the scales start to go down, well, then, I thought, 'Well, what happens now if maybe I exercise an hour before school and don't eat bread?' "Her idea turned into waking up at 3 a.m. to exercise for four hours before school and eating next to nothing.She then tried to find new ways to burn more calories apart from exercise such as frequently asking to go to the bathroom so she could walk to and from class and fidgeting. She saw her breakfast routine as an opportunity to burn calories as well."I would set things so far apart on the counter where I would have to walk up and down the kitchen counter to make it just so I can constantly be burning calories," she said.'It was awful'Within four months, DiScala weighed a mere 80 pounds."I was wearing basically children's clothes. It was hard to find clothes that would fit," she said."Every week I would see my reflection of my back and see more bones coming out, more ribs and more hip bones. It was awful."DiScala said exercise, calories and the scale ruled her life even though she longed to do the things that any teenager wanted to do like sleep in and hang out with her friends."I really wanted to just be comfortable and be happy, but I didn't think it was possible ever again. And I just didn't know how to get past it." Further, DiScala says admitting she had an eating disorder meant failure to her.During this low point in her life came what should have been a high point in her career when in November 1997, DiScala learned that HBO would be picking up the series. But she was under the spell of her eating disorder and nothing else mattered. "It was like in one ear and out the other because I was too concerned about what I was going to be having for lunch that day. And I truly lost a will to live."Her rock-bottom moment came on a drive with her parents into New York City to go rollerblading. After leaving their house more than 45 minutes late, DiScala's strict exercise and eating schedule was completely disrupted -- a disaster for an exercise bulimic."I was shaking and crying in the back of the car and my parents were crying because they didn't know what to do," she said.DiScala admitted then to her parents that she had an eating disorder and wanted help. The next day she saw a therapist and a nutritionist and was put on Prozac.Road to recovery and advocacyDiScala began to eat and modify her exercise and started gaining weight. But when she returned to "The Sopranos" set to shoot the first season in the summer of 1998, she was still 35 pounds thinner than when she shot the pilot. Worried that she'd be too weak to do her job and that she didn't look the part of a Mafia daughter, whose family sustained themselves on platefuls of pasta, show producers began auditioning other actresses for the role. But DiScala vowed to hold on to the part she had dreamed of and within a year, she gained back all the weight.Now, DiScala serves as the spokeswoman for the National Eating Disorders Association. She's also shared her own personal story in her autobiography "Wise Girl."And while she's let go of her eating disorder, she still holds on to one reminder in her wallet: a picture of herself at her lowest weight."I thought that that was my life. I was set. This was the way I was going to have to live my life," she said. "And knowing that I was able to overcome it and be healthy and happy again is amazing."CNN's Paula Zahn contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Many fewer disabled children take the nation's reading and math tests than the government has previously said, congressional investigators acknowledge.The Government Accountability Office reported in July that only 5 percent of students with disabilities are excluded from the National Assessment of Educational Progress.Now the GAO says that figure is eight times higher. For example, 40 percent of fourth-graders with disabilities who were in the sample for the 2002 reading test didn't take it.The discrepancy is important because the federal test, known as the Nation's Report Card, is supposed to be representative of all students, including those with disabilities. The higher the rate of exclusions, the more some students' scores and needs may be left behind.The mistake resulted from miscommunication between the GAO, which is the auditing arm of Congress, and the Education Department, which provided the data on the disabled students.Typically, students are excluded from the testing because, unlike many state tests, the federal exams cannot accommodate some special needs. For instance, passages cannot be read aloud to students because the reading test measures a student's ability to read the written word.Advocates for disabled children say that although some students cannot take the federal test, the GAO's revised number of excluded kids, 4 in 10 children, was alarming."It denies the country an accurate picture of how students are performing on the most important tracking assessment that we have," said James Wendorf, executive director of the National Center for Learning Disabilities. "Kids with disabilities deserve to be included."In a letter Monday to Sen. Edward Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who requested the initial report, the GAO said the exclusion rates are "much higher than previously reported."The 5 percent figure the GAO originally used reflects the number of students with disabilities who were excluded from testing when compared with the entire sample of students.Yet when the number of disabled children who were kept out of testing is compared only with the sample of students identified with disabilities, the exclusion rates are much higher.The GAO said the Education Department only pointed this out in September, more than two months after education officials examined the draft report and raised no questions about its accuracy. The GAO routinely gives agencies a chance to comment before releasing reports.But Education Department officials say they have been consistently reporting the exclusion rates for years and are not to blame for how the numbers were misinterpreted."GAO made a mistake in their report and we didn't catch it," said Russ Whitehurst, director of the Institute of Education Sciences, an arm of the Education Department. "As soon as we found out about it, we alerted them that there had been a problem."The independent board that oversees the federal tests is working on uniform ways to help more disabled children participate in the tests.The percentage of disabled students who were excluded has been declining -- from 57 percent in 1992 to 40 percent in 2002 to 35 percent in 2005 in fourth-grade reading. The numbers are better in math. In fourth-grade math, 19 percent of students with disabilities were excluded from the test in 2005, down from 26 percent five years earlier.The bigger worry, Whitehurst said, is when states have widely different accommodations for students with disabilities. Such variation leads to some states excluding few students and some excluding many, which erodes the value of the test as measuring stick across states.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina (AP) -- In the early decades of the University of North Carolina, servants kindled fires in students' rooms and cut wood to fuel stoves.The 216-year-old school, which takes pride in being the nation's oldest public university, is now airing a shameful side of its past -- those servants were slaves.The university is using records and photographs that archivists have uncovered to present a fuller story of the school's beginnings."This university was built by slaves and free blacks," said Chancellor James Moeser. "We need to be candid about that, acknowledge their contributions."The University of North Carolina, chartered in 1789, is among several universities, banks and financial firms that have tried to set the record straight on their historical ties to the slave trade.North Carolina archivists were researching the university's first 100 years when they found records that confirmed slaves helped construct campus buildings. Other records showed that both faculty and university board members owned slaves.Some of that research is on display in "Slavery and the Making of the University: Celebrating Our Unsung Heroes, Bond and Free." The on-campus exhibit includes photographs, letters and documents such as bills of sale for slaves.In one letter, the wife of the school's first law professor wrote her husband that university President David Lowry Swain wanted to hire "Harry" for work. She pledged she would "hire Harry out whenever I can."The exhibit is among several recent efforts by the university to acknowledge its past links to slavery. It offers a class on the history of blacks at the school, and a monument honoring the slaves and free blacks who helped build the school was installed in May.Other universities that have shed light on their historical ties to slavery include the University of Alabama, where the faculty senate last year apologized to the descendants of slaves who were owned by faculty members or who worked on campus in the years before the Civil War. The school also erected a marker near the graves of two slaves on campus.A committee at Brown University in Rhode Island is examining the school's past ties to the slave trade and recommending whether and how the college should take responsibility. A report on the findings is due by the end of the fall semester."We clearly do live in a society that has a persistent pattern of racial disparity and I think most people would agree that that has something to do with our history," said James Campbell, a history professor at Brown and the chairman of the committee."If you care about that pattern of disparity, then it seems to me one of the things that is incumbent on you is to try to find out how we got here," Campbell saidJust how many schools have ties to the slave trade remains unknown, since so much information has been concealed, said Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree. But he believes those found to have had links to slavery should pay reparations.Some banks and financial services firms have made donations after conducting investigations into their own past ties to slavery. Often the research in those case was prompted by local governments demanding an accounting.Charlotte-based Wachovia Corp. committed an undisclosed sum to support black history education in June, a few days after announcing that two of its predecessor banks owned slaves. Also this year, New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co. gave $5 million to support college scholarships for black students in Louisiana, where two of its predecessor banks received thousands of slaves as collateral.The researchers examining the University of North Carolina's past say they hope the new exhibit is just the beginning of a renewed effort to create a more complete understanding of the school's early years."I think it is important that we do this since we are the oldest university," said Susan Ballinger, assistant university archivist. "The chancellor has said over and over again that it's critical for the university to be honest about its past. He wants our history told fully, warts and all."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The red-jacketed Michelin guidebook, considered a Bible for food connoisseurs in Europe, has revealed its rankings of New York restaurants -- and may have some chefs seeing stars.The much-anticipated listings in "Michelin Guide New York City 2006" had food lovers guessing for months about which eateries would merit the debut guide's highest rank of three stars.Four high-end Manhattan restaurants with well-established reputations for excellence -- Alain Ducasse, Jean-Georges, Le Bernardin and Per Se -- received all three coveted stars, the guide announced Tuesday.But other gastronomic gurus are bound to be less than pleased with their new status. Four respected Manhattan restaurants earned only two stars -- Bouley, Daniel, Danube and Masa.That could be a perceived slight considering both Masa and Daniel landed the highest four-star ranking from The New York Times. The widely read Zagat Survey also put Daniel and Bouley in its highest category with Per Se and Le Bernardin.Renowned chef Daniel Boulud shrugged off Michelin's calculations. "The public doesn't need Michelin to tell them where I belong," he said. "I'm not going to change anything."All of the top picks, local critics said, were likely choices given Michelin's proclivity to elevate only the most elite restaurants. All of these kitchens, GQ magazine food critic Alan Richman said, practice versions of very expensive and modern French cooking."We were all afraid that Michelin would bring French Michelin standards to New York," Richman explained. "It's exactly what they did. That doesn't make it wrong or bad. It just makes it so predictable."Michelin gave one star to an additional 31 restaurants, among them Nobu, Gramercy Tavern, Aureole and Vong. The Zagat guide, which ranks restaurants largely on diner feedback, has placed both Nobu and Gramercy Tavern at the top of recent lists.Two eateries in Brooklyn were on Michelin's one-star list -- the famed Peter Luger steak house, and Saul, a local favorite that opened in 1999 in the borough's Boerum Hill neighborhood.The guide, $16.95, hits stores on Friday.A three-star Michelin rating indicates "exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey," while two stars means "excellent cooking, worth a detour." One star is given to "a very good restaurant in its category."Food critic John Mariani, who publishes an influential industry newsletter, said a third star puts an incredible amount of pressure and stress on chefs.Many people believe Chef Bernard Loiseau, 52, committed suicide two years ago in France after rumors circulated that Michelin would yank one of his three stars.Ducasse, though, was clearly not crying in his cassoulet after receiving his trio of stars. "It's a great pleasure for me and my team," Ducasse said. "It was a surprise. A good surprise."New York's Michelin guide also lists 468 restaurants with no star, a listing that is considered an honor by itself, connoting a quality restaurant worth trying.Michelin now puts out 12 guides covering 20 countries.Michelin inspectors are notoriously stingy about admitting new members to its exclusive club, with just 50 three-star restaurants in all of France and only three in the United Kingdom.Jean-Luc Naret, director of the Michelin Guide, said he spoke with New York chefs Tuesday and didn't encounter any hard feelings -- at least not yet. "Maybe they will come later on," he said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- It's the city of Martin Luther King Jr., Coca-Cola, CNN and "Gone With The Wind."Yet Atlanta has always struggled to crystallize all that it is into an image the rest of the world can embrace.Nothing summed up that futility more than during the run-up to the 1996 Summer Olympics, when Atlanta unveiled its mascot of the games, Izzy -- an amorphous blob."Atlantans love their city, but the word has not traveled as far as we would have hoped," Mayor Shirley Franklin acknowledged in October as she announced a new, $4.5 million campaign to brand the city for tourists.The city has also unveiled a flashy new red-and-white logo and a new theme song -- "The ATL" -- penned by Atlanta hip-hop producer Dallas Austin. A campaign slogan will be announced during a downtown concert November 10.It's all aimed at helping Atlanta catch up with cities such as Las Vegas and New York, where years of heavy marketing have paid off with ever-increasing tourism numbers.For visitor Pam Grapatin, of Cleveland, Ohio, there is clearly much work to be done."To be honest, being from Cleveland, you don't think too much about Atlanta except that it has a bunch of traffic," she said as she snapped pictures at Centennial Olympic Park. And she's a travel agent.Marketing professionals say her response is no surprise.While Atlanta is the eighth-largest media market in the country with a metropolitan area of roughly 4 million people, it's never done the kind of self-promotion that most major cities do, said John Barker, president of DZP Marketing Communications in New York, whose clients have included Comedy Central, Major League Soccer and UNICEF."It's safe to say that the image of Atlanta does currently lag behind the reality of Atlanta," Barker said. "It has a terrific arts scene, great restaurants, great cultural venues and facilities. What they now need is a way to bring that reality out in the open in a simple and memorable way."'The time is right'But tourism officials hope that several high-profile attractions and developments will bring new life to the hit-or-miss appeal of Atlanta's downtown.The campaign coincides with the debut of the Georgia Aquarium, billed as the world's largest aquarium, on November 23; the November 12 opening of three new buildings at the High Museum of Art; a new retail center, Atlantic Station, and two new hotels scheduled to open next year.Another top local attraction, the "Inside CNN" studio tour, has undergone a $5.5 million overhaul to make it more interactive.And looking down the road, in 2007, the World of Coca-Cola museum will move about a mile from its current spot to a site next door to the aquarium.Atlanta is also one of five finalists for a NASCAR hall of fame that would sit across the street -- also near Centennial Park, CNN, the Georgia Dome and the Georgia World Congress Center."So much has happened, or is about to happen," Franklin said. "The time is right."Barker said it's hard to judge the campaign based on the information that's been released so far. He predicted that a "Three O's" theme -- opportunity, openness and optimism -- announced last week is more about building local support for the campaign than anything that will become part of a marketing strategy."No one's going to come to Atlanta for 'the three O's,"' he said.He said one challenge facing the Brand Atlanta campaign committee, directed by Coca-Cola vice president Jackson Kelly, will be getting effective marketing techniques approved by everyone involved.Kelly called the Las Vegas ads with the racy tagline -- "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" -- one of the greatest tourism campaigns ever, but said he was surprised they were approved by political and tourism officials."Atlanta will need to overcome the hurdles of internal bureaucracy and the tendency for committees to create mediocre campaigns," Barker said. "It's not an issue that is distinct to Atlanta. It's an issue distinct to politics."Hints about themes for the city's new marketing campaign suggest that hip-hop might play a role. In addition to inspiring the title of Austin's song, the new logo highlights the letters "ATL" in the city's name -- which is also the ticketing code for its airport. "The ATL" is a slang term for the city coined by hip-hop artists, which is home to chart-topping acts such as Austin, OutKast, Ludacris and Jermaine Dupri, who teamed up on the 2001 hit "Welcome to Atlanta."Franklin said the campaign won't be limited to just hip-hop, and instead will focus on the city's diversity."As Brand Atlanta continues to roll out over the next month, you will begin to see the essence of Atlanta come to life," she said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Outsiders will get their first peek at the National Zoo's baby giant panda starting next week.The zoo has distributed some 600 timed entry tickets to members of its booster organization, Friends of the National Zoo. Members of that group will get to see the panda on 11 dates, starting Monday and running through early December. The zoo will allow FONZ members to get tickets for an additional three days of viewing. (Watch Tai Shan get an exam -- :40)The cub, Tai Shan, was born July 9. He's expected to make his official public debut in early December, though no date has been set. (Watch Tai Shan walk -- 1:19)Officials believe the FONZ membership viewing will help the cub, his mother, Mei Xiang, and zoo staff get used to having crowds parade through the Panda House, which has been closed since the cub's birth.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Drug makers must begin submitting electronic versions of their drug labels to build a database that doctors and patients can search for recent warnings or other changes, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday.The labels will be available on the Internet within one business day of any FDA-approved change, FDA officials said in a statement."With this information, physicians will be able to quickly search and access specific information they need before prescribing a treatment, allowing for fewer prescribing errors and better informed decision making," the FDA said.Digital versions of drug labels must be provided to the FDA when either a label change is made or as part of a yearly report that pharmaceutical companies provide the agency.It will take a year for the roughly 9,000 U.S.-approved prescription drugs to have their new labels put online, FDA spokeswoman Kristen Neese said.Drug labels are usually designed as small pamphlets included with the medicine and are known for their small print.The labels include information on how the medicine works, what dose patients should take, possible side effects and, sometimes, warnings against its use in certain people or under specific conditions.The FDA says the new Internet format will allow people to more easily navigate through the information by jumping directly to certain sections.The FDA will next require similar digital label formats for nonprescription drugs and eventually for medical devices, animal drugs, some food products and biologic drugs such as vaccines, said Neese.Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A flu pandemic that hits the United States would force cities to ration scarce drugs and vaccine and house the sick in hotels or schools when hospitals overflow, unprecedented federal plans say.The Bush administration's long-awaited report Wednesday on battling a worldwide super-flu outbreak makes clear that old-fashioned infection-control will be key.Signs that a super-flu is spreading among people anywhere in the world could prompt U.S. travel restrictions or other steps to contain the illness before it hits America's shores. (Watch possible problems with the flu plan 3:11)If that fails, the Pandemic Influenza Plan offers specific instructions to local health officials: The sick or the people caring for them should wear masks. People coughing must stay three feet away from others in doctors' waiting rooms. People should cancel nonessential doctor appointments and limit visits to the hospital.A day after President Bush outlined his $7.1 billion strategy to prepare for the next pandemic, the details released Wednesday stress major steps that state and local authorities must begin taking now: Update quarantine laws. Work with utilities to keep the phones working and grocers to keep supplying food amid the certain panic. Determine when to close schools and limit public gatherings such as movies or religious services."This is a critical part of the plan," because states will be at the forefront of a battle that could have "5,000 fronts," said Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, who will work with governors in coming weeks to push local preparations. "Every community is different and requires a different approach."Also Wednesday, the government for the first time told Americans not to hoard the anti-flu drug Tamiflu, because doing so will hurt federal efforts to stockpile enough to treat the sick who really need it. Tamiflu's maker recently suspended shipments of the drug to U.S. pharmacies because of concern about hoarding.A key question is how much of the financial burden of preparing must be shouldered by cash-strapped states. Bush's plan provides $100 million to update state pandemic plans, but also requires states to spend about $510 million of their own money to buy enough Tamiflu for 31 million people to supplement the federal stockpile.Some states might not be able to buy the drug, said Rep. Nita Lowey, D-New York."This is a national emergency. I believe very strongly it should not depend upon where you live as to what sort of protection you get," Lowey told Leavitt on Wednesday.Lawmakers also grilled Leavitt -- who appeared before House and Senate health appropriations panels -- on why it took the administration more than a year to issue its plan."Could we have acted sooner to avoid the situation we are in now, in effect running for cover?" asked Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania.Pandemics strike when the easy-to-mutate influenza virus shifts to a strain that people have never experienced before, something that happened three times in the last century.It's impossible to predict when the next pandemic will strike, or its toll. But concern is rising that the Asian bird flu, called the H5N1 strain, might trigger one if it eventually starts spreading easily from person-to-person.The new HHS pandemic plan outlines the worst-case scenario: If the next super-flu resembles the 1918 pandemic, up to a third of the population could get sick and 1.9 million Americans die.The illness will spread fastest among school-aged children, infecting about 40 percent of them. At the outbreak's peak, about 10 percent of the work force will be absent because they're sick or caring for an ill loved one, wreaking economic chaos. Health costs alone could reach $181 billion.A cornerstone of Bush's preparations is to modernize the vaccine industry, so that one day scientists could spot a novel influenza strain and quickly produce enough vaccine for everybody.That, however, will take years.So the administration is also beefing up attempts to detect and contain a brewing pandemic wherever it starts in the world -- with restrictions on international travelers attempting to enter the country as one potential step.Here, HHS has the legal authority to order quarantines, if health officials think they would help stem infections. It's unclear how much quarantines would help fight influenza, as people can spread the virus a day before they experience symptoms, but the federal plan orders communities to get their own quarantine procedures in order just in case.Also in the plan: Telling states how to prioritize who will get limited stockpiled doses of medication and vaccine.The government wants to stockpile enough vaccine against today's version of the bird flu to treat 20 million people, with vaccine manufacturers, health workers and the medically frail first in line for shots.It also plans to stockpile enough of the anti-flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza for 81 million people, provided states come up with their share -- enough for 31 million. Most of the drugs will be reserved for the sickest patients.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (AP) -- A judge will ask the state Supreme Court on Wednesday to let him stay on the bench after a commission that oversees judges ordered him dismissed because he has three wives.Those pursuing the case against Judge Walter Steed say his plural marriage creates a conflict: After taking an oath to uphold the law, he shouldn't be breaking it."You can't have it both ways," said Colin Winchester, the executive director of the state's Judicial Conduct Commission.The commission issued an order seeking Steed's removal from the bench in February, after a 14-month investigation determined Steed was a polygamist and as such had violated Utah's bigamy law.Bigamy is a third-degree felony in Utah punishable by up to five years in prison, but Steed's attorney, Rod Parker, said Utah's attorney general and the Washington County prosecutor have declined to prosecute his client.Steed has served for 25 years in the southern border town of Hildale, handing down rulings in drunken driving and domestic violence cases. Parker contends the bigamy statute is only enforced in rare cases, such as when someone has been duped into marrying someone who already has a wife."There is no allegation that it's affecting his performance on the bench," Parker said. "It really is truly only about his private conduct."The complaint against Steed was filed with the commission in November 2003 by Tapestry Against Polygamy, an advocacy group founded by ex-polygamous women who organized to help others leave the handful of secretive religious colonies that adhere to the practice.Plural marriage was an original tenet of the mainline Mormon church, but the faith abandoned the practice as a condition of statehood in 1890. About 30,000 polygamists, who split from the main church into various fundamentalist sects more than 100 years ago, are believed to be living in Utah.Steed legally married his first wife in 1965, according to court documents. The second and third wives were married -- or "sealed" as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints refers to it -- to him in religious ceremonies in 1975 and 1985. The three women are biological sisters and no one in the family was expecting that the second and third marriages would be civilly recognized."I think it's an equal protection problem," Parker said.The state Supreme Court's chief justice, Christine Durham, opted not to place Steed on administrative leave during the investigation.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A former pizza deliveryman accused of being one of the city's most prolific serial killers was ordered Tuesday to stand trial on charges of murdering 10 women, two of whom were pregnant.Superior Court Judge William R. Pounders ruled during a preliminary hearing that there was sufficient cause to believe Chester D. Turner committed the slayings that occurred from 1987 to 1998.Turner, 38, is currently serving an eight-year prison sentence in an unrelated rape case. Pounders set a November 15 arraignment date.Turner's DNA was matched to evidence from the bodies of all the victims, said Carl Matthies of the police department's scientific investigations division. The likelihood of the genetic profile belonging to someone other than Turner was one in one-quintillion, Matthies said.Defense attorney John Tyre said outside court that DNA does not prove murder. "If it is his DNA it indicates he had sex with these women some time prior to them dying," Tyre said.Deputy medical examiner Lisa Scheinin testified that all 10 women were strangled, nine had cocaine in their systems, one was more than six months pregnant and one was between four and five months pregnant.Prosecutors have not said whether they would seek the death penalty if Turner is convicted. In addition to 10 counts of murder, Turner is accused of the special circumstances of multiple murder and murder committed during a rape.The slayings remained unsolved until a cold case homicide unit began looking into them. In 2002, Turner agreed to submit a DNA sample as part of a no-contest plea to the unrelated rape charge. A detective allegedly found that it matched evidence found in two murders and began looking for more.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

DENVER (AP) -- Residents of the Mile High City have voted to legalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana for adults. Authorities, though, said state possession laws will be applied instead.With 100 percent of precincts reporting early Wednesday, 54 percent, or 56,001 voters, cast ballots for the ordinance, while 46 percent, or 48,632 voters, voted against it.Under the measure, residents over 21 years old could possess up to an ounce of marijuana."We educated voters about the facts that marijuana is less harmful to the user and society than alcohol," said Mason Tvert, campaign organizer for SAFER, or Safer Alternatives For Enjoyable Recreation. "To prohibit adults from making the rational, safer choice to use marijuana is bad public policy."Bruce Mirken of the Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project said he hoped the approval will launch a national trend toward legalizing a drug whose enforcement he said causes more problems than it cures.Seattle, Oakland, California, and a few college towns already have laws making possession the lowest law enforcement priority.The Denver proposal seemed to draw at least as much attention for supporters' campaign tactics as it did for the question of legalizing the drug.Tvert argued that legalizing marijuana would reduce consumption of alcohol, which he said leads to higher rates of car accidents, domestic and street violence and crime.The group criticized Mayor John Hickenlooper for opposing the proposal, noting his ownership of a popular brewpub. It also said recent violent crimes -- including the shootings of four people last weekend -- as a reason to legalize marijuana to steer people away from alcohol use.Those tactics angered local officials and some voters. Opponents also said it made no sense to prevent prosecution by Denver authorities while marijuana charges are most often filed under state and federal law.The measure would not affect the medical marijuana law voters approved in 2000. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that medical marijuana laws in Colorado and nine other states would not protect licensed users from federal prosecution.Also Tuesday, voters in the ski resort town of Telluride rejected a proposal to make possession of an ounce or less of marijuana by people 18 or older the town's lowest law enforcement priority. The measure was rejected on a vote of 308-332.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A lobbyist and his partner exaggerated the threat of competing casinos opening in Texas and Louisiana to siphon millions from the Louisiana Coushatta tribe and then used the money to pad coffers of personal charities and political allies, two tribal leaders told a Senate committee Wednesday."They preyed on our political insecurities, economic insecurities and insecurities about each other," Kevin Sickey, the Coushatta tribal chairman told the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.In October 2001, the tribe paid Michael Scanlon $870,000 to create a grass-roots political structure in Texas because it was told the state was on the verge of legalizing gambling and that would devastate the Coushatta casino, which relies on customers from Houston, the Senate panel was told."Our vulnerability simply provided an opportunity to steal and they hit the jackpot with us," Sickey said of lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Scanlon, his partner. (Read analysis of Abramoff involvement) $80 million paid to lobbyistsThe Senate committee has been investigating Abramoff and Scanlon, a public relations specialist who formerly was a spokesman for ex-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and the more than $80 million they were paid between 2001 and 2004 by six American Indian tribes with gaming casinos.Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Arizona, said Abramoff and Scanlon considered the Coushatta their "money train." He said his committee hopes to release a report from its investigation in January and may hold other hearings if needed. The Senate panel also called Steven Griles, a former lobbyist who resigned last December as deputy interior secretary, to testify at the hearing. Griles is the most senior Bush administration official drawn into the investigation.McCain said the committee also had subpoenaed Italia Federici, head of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, a group that Interior Secretary Gale Norton helped found before she joined the Bush administration.Federici did not respond to the subpoena, McCain said. Federici's group received at least $250,000 in contributions from the Coushatta, but McCain said the committee could not find anything the group did for the tribes.Lobbyist tied to DeLayDeLay stepped down as House majority leader in September after he was indicted in Texas on state felony charges of conspiracy and laundering campaign funds. The charges against DeLay are not related to the Senate probe. (DeLay turns self in after indictment in Texas)The hearing is the fourth by McCain into Abramoff's lucrative lobbying practice on behalf of Indian tribes and their casino ventures. (Bill Schneider discusses testimony in June hearing)The Associated Press reported last spring that Abramoff had extensive access to Bush administration officials, including Griles, while he worked with the lobbying firm of Greenberg Traurig.Abramoff's lobbying work is being examined in a separate Justice Department investigation. He has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Florida on charges of fraud and conspiracy stemming from his role in the 2000 purchase of a fleet of gambling boats. (Full story)Another former Bush administration official, David Safavian, who was chief of staff of the General Services Administration, the government's procurement arm, was charged this fall with making false statements and obstructing a federal investigation of a 2002 golf outing to Scotland that Abramoff took with Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, and others.The Coushattas hired Abramoff and Scanlon's lobbying services to help thwart the Jena Choctaws, another Louisiana tribe, from opening its own casino. As part of the effort, Abramoff directed the Coushattas to make contributions to political committees and conservative groups.The tribe donated $45,000 to DeLay's national political fundraising committee, Americans for a Republican Majority, and another $10,000 to Texans for a Republican Majority, also founded by DeLay and now at the center of the Texas campaign finance investigation involving him.The tribe was told to void the contributions to ARMPAC and TRMPAC and reissue them to two other Republican-aligned groups.Invoices obtained by the AP last summer showed the Coushattas were charged $185,000 for use of a Washington arena skybox Abramoff had leased. In 2000, DeLay treated some of his donors to a performance of the Three Tenors opera singers in Abramoff's skybox.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Puffing away was part of the job for David Strathairn, who smoked up to 50 cigarettes a day for his role as Edward R. Murrow in George Clooney's "Good Night, and Good Luck."In the film, the legendary TV journalist is often shown smoking -- even while on the air -- during his battle with Sen. Joseph McCarthy. (Murrow developed lung cancer and died in 1965 at age 57.)"I tried all different kinds of tobacco to see which would be the least crippling and I ended up with pipe tobacco," Strathairn, a nonsmoker, told AP Radio in a recent interview. "I found that that burned less harshly. It also smelled better."The role of Murrow is the most visible yet for the 56-year-old Strathairn, mostly known as a character actor.Strathairn said the part needed to "effect the essence" of Murrow for both the people who knew him personally and the journalists who revere him."We shot in sequence for the most part, and I get a lot better at it toward the end," he said.Strathairn's films include "A Map of the World," "Blue Car" and "L.A. Confidential." He appeared briefly on HBO's "The Sopranos" as a character who nearly had an affair with Carmela Soprano.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The runway is the fastest route for Alek Wek to get where she's going.The stunning supermodel known for her short hair, dark skin and bright smile has strode the catwalks of some of the world's top fashion houses.She calls Karl Lagerfeld, Jean Paul Gaultier and Dries Van Noten friends, and solicited advice from such designers during the early stages of launching her handbag company, Wek1933, named after the year her father was born.Wek also has a great wardrobe."Maybe I do have a few more dresses, but I'm just like everyone else. I have a favorite raggedy dress, and I have a Dior, a Gucci, a Dries Van Noten, but that's after more than five years of being in their shows!" she told The Associated Press over tea at Manhattan's Splashlight Studios.On this day, she's wearing an orange top, light-wash jeans and an animal-print scarf around her head.Walking in stilettos for so many years -- she was discovered at a London art school after emigrating to Britain at age 14 -- hasn't affected her balance: She successfully juggles the demands of her career, family -- she has eight siblings -- and charity."Pressure only makes you sick. You won't get anything positive out of it," she said.Wek was born in southern Sudan in 1977 and raised as part of the Dinka tribe. She fled with two of her sisters during the country's civil war, and was reunited with her mother and other siblings two years later.She now carries a British passport, but Wek's not sure if she'd call London, where her mother lives, or Brooklyn, where she has a town house, her home. (Her unusual accent falls somewhere between Britain and Brooklyn.)Her heart, though, belongs to Africa. Wek is a partner of Doctors Without Borders in its Bracelet of Life campaign that highlights malnutrition in Sudan and is an advisory board member for the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.Q: What was your first fashion show?ALEK WEK: It was in London for Red or Dead. I wore hot pants and cowboy boots and I thought, "What have I gotten myself into?"Q: Are you worried about getting older in an industry that values youth?WEK: I feel 18. I'm trying to grow older with wisdom.Q: Do you have a glamorous life?WEK: Fashion shows are glamorous for 20 minutes. ... I am always aware how beautiful and special the clothes are. Someone's mom or sister made them and it might have taken six months.Q: Do you often find yourself in a room filled with egomaniacs?WEK: Not everyone is selfish in fashion. There are people who go to bed feeling good about themselves and then spread the love.Q: Do the more seasoned models offer advice to the younger ones or is it more of a turf battle?WEK: We probably give advice to each other without knowing it. A lot of people especially want to know about going into business. But it's a two-way conversation. It brings us together. It's more camaraderie than catty, but, sure, there always is someone who doesn't help anyone. No workplace is perfect.Q: Do you feel pressured as a model to be rail thin?WEK: Today I had potato and fish soup. I eat, but not junk. ... I love hot milk, water. Growing up, lunch was the big meal. We'd eat boiled eggs, and we had cookies as a treat. ... I always eat breakfast, and I like tea, grilled chicken with onion, tomato and whole-wheat bread. There are models who don't eat. That's worrisome -- you need the right amount of gas to get going.Q: What drives your interest in charity work?WEK: Ten dollars could feed a Sudanese family for a month, but aid is still not reaching everyone. I feel like I should be the voice. If we don't take care of each other, who will? ... I don't want to ever say, "I should've done something."Q: Do you have a celebrity boyfriend?WEK: (Laughing) My boyfriend isn't a rock star. His values are rock solid. We met at a dinner and he made me laugh.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ALAMO, California (AP) -- Billionaire and former PeopleSoft Inc. owner David Duffield plans to revise blueprints to build a mansion larger than the Hearst Castle after neighbors complained the hotel-sized home was out of character with the area.Duffield, the founder of the software company, released blueprints last month for the proposed 72,000-square-foot house in Alamo, California, a suburb east of San Francisco. It would have been bigger than Microsoft chairman Bill Gates' mansion and the White House.Initial plans for the 22-acre lot called for a horse stable, two swimming pools and a 20-car garage.Neighbors in the Bryan Ranch Homeowners Association complained the mansion would detract from the natural beauty and privacy of the subdivision. More than 230 homeowners signed a petition opposing it."We have been listening to the concerns of several neighbors and members of the community and are proposing to modify/amend some of the conceptual architectural plans submitted," Jim Dugdale, Duffield's project manager, wrote in an e-mail to the association.Duffield's spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment, and the e-mail did not say what the changes would be.Duffield made most of his $1.1 billion fortune by reluctantly selling PeopleSoft to Oracle Corp. last year.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- When Madonna takes the stage in Lisbon this week to perform her new single "Hung Up," it will be the culmination of weeks of promotion harnessing new technology that is revolutionizing the music industry.Major artists are increasingly using the Internet, mobile phones and music appliances like Apple Computer's iPod to generate hype and sales, combining technological advances with the traditional mainstays of live performance and interviews.Stars including Robbie Williams, Madonna, U2 and Latin American singer Shakira have explored new ways to market their music in the last two years, while lesser-known acts like British band Arctic Monkeys are also getting in on the act."This is the future, baby," Williams announced at the end of his album-launching concert in Berlin last month, which was beamed into 27 cinema and nightclub venues across Europe and watched by more than 100,000 people on their mobile phones.Williams' partner in promoting his "Intensive Care" record is T-Mobile, which has signed an 18-month deal with the British singer that is in keeping with a shift towards using mobile phone technology to sell pop music."Everyone these days has a mobile phone, so for major artists, this is a perfect tool to stay in touch with the fans," said Matthias Immel, who is involved in international marketing at T-Mobile, an arm of Germany's Deutsche Telekom."There is a major trend in the music industry from physical to digital formats, and this of course will continue," he said."What will happen is that mobile phones will be the dominant hardware used as digital music players. iPod is successful, but it is still a high-end device."The music business is only beginning to come to terms with Internet downloading, much of which has been done illegally, and piracy of physical CDs.Legal digital music sales tripled in the first half of 2005, partly helped by mobile phone "ringtunes," but CDs and other physical formats continued their steady decline.First lady of pop tunes inMadonna has followed hard on Williams' heels, making "Hung Up," the debut single from her eagerly-anticipated new album "Confessions on a Dancefloor," available first as a ringtone via MTV.com and VH1.com. She takes to the stage in Portugal on Thursday to launch it.The same Web sites along with LOGOonline.com, which all belong to media group Viacom, will also offer access to the whole album one week prior to the official release date in mid-November.MTV has also linked up with Colombian-born Shakira, who releases "Oral Fixation Vol 2" later this month.Under the deal, the music channel will offer tracks from the album online a week before they go on general release and produce "mobisodes," or interviews and performances by the artist that will be distributed to mobile phones."We're trying to play into these new methods by which consumers and fans are trying to get their music," said Brian Celler, vice president of international marketing at Epic Records, Shakira's label owned by Sony BMG.Last year U2 tapped the iPod boom to promote its hit album "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb."With the recent arrival of "podcasting," which allows customers to download video segments to portable devices, that kind of cooperation is expected to increase.It is not only internationally established artists who are getting in on the act.The relatively obscure Arctic Monkeys grabbed the coveted number one slot in Britain's weekly charts last month after creating a fan base by allowing music lovers to swap its songs on the Internet for free. Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

PARIS, France -- France's prime minister has cancelled a trip to Canada in order to tackle spreading violence in poor Paris suburbs and soothe a public row between his ministers over the government's response.After a sixth night of rioting, Dominique de Villepin on Wednesday summoned eight ministers to a crisis meeting to address the unrest and try to stamp out ministerial squabbling.The unrest has sparked a war of words between Villepin and his deputy Nicolas Sarkozy ahead of 2007 presidential elections.Villepin told parliament he had cancelled plans to leave for Canada on Wednesday. And, while demanding punishment for lawbreakers, he used calmer language than that used by Sarkozy, who had called the protesting youths "scum." "Let's avoid stigmatizing areas .... let's treat petty crime differently to major crime, let's fight all discrimination with firmness, and avoid confusing a disruptive minority with the vast majority of youngsters who want to integrate into society and succeed," he said.Earlier Wednesday French President Jacques Chirac called for calm and warned of a "dangerous situation" in the capital's suburbs."The law must be applied firmly and in a spirit of dialogue and respect," Chirac told a Cabinet meeting Wednesday. "The absence of dialogue and an escalation of a lack of respect will lead to a dangerous situation.""Zones without law cannot exist in the republic," Chirac said. His remarks were passed on to reporters by government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope.The spokesman said Chirac acknowledged the "profound frustrations" of troubled neighborhoods but said violence was not the answer and that efforts must be stepped up to combat it, The Associated Press reported.The unrest, triggered last week by the deaths of two teenagers, spread Tuesday night to at least nine towns in the suburbs north and northeast of Paris as police clashed with angry youths and dozens of vehicles were set on fire.One of the worst-hit suburbs was Aulnay-sous-Bois, where 15 cars were torched and police in riot gear fired tear gas and rubber bullets at gangs of angry youths who threw stones at a firehouse and lobbed Molotov cocktails at a town hall annex, AP reported.In Bondy, 15 cars were burned and four people arrested for throwing stones at police, AP reported officials as saying.Police maintained a tense calm in Clichy-sous-Bois, where the rioting began last week after two teenagers were accidentally electrocuted and a third was injured while apparently trying to escape from police by hiding in a power substation. Officials have said police were not chasing the boys.On Tuesday night, the sixth straight night of unrest, some 150 fires were reported in cars, buildings and garbage bins in the suburbs across the Seine-Saint-Denis region on the north and northeast of Paris, France-Info radio said.The area is home mainly to families of immigrant origin, often from Muslim North Africa, AP said. It is marked by soaring unemployment, delinquency and other urban ills.Police detained 34 people in the overnight violence, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy told Europe-1 radio.Tense battleSarkozy was criticized by government minister Azouz Begag for calling the protesting youths "scum," and the opposition Socialists have denounced Sarkozy's policies.But the interior minister defended his approach."I speak with real words," Sarkozy told Wednesday's Le Parisien newspaper. "When you fire real bullets at police, you're not a 'youth,' you're a thug."Sarkozy described the social aid provided to the suburbs over the years as a failure."We often accepted the unacceptable," he told Le Parisien. "The reigning order is too often the order of gangs, drugs, traffickers. The neighborhoods are waiting for firmness but also justice" and jobs.Sarkozy and de Villepin, both met Tuesday evening with victim's relatives, but the unrest spread even as they met.The two men are locked in an increasingly tense battle to lead the right in the 2007 presidential election.Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) -- Riot police across the capital fired guns to quell a second day of protests against Ethiopia's disputed parliamentary elections. Police killed at least 23 people and wounded dozens more, hospital doctors and health workers said.Adam Melaku, head of the independent Ethiopian Human Rights Council, on Wednesday revised earlier figures his group gave of 33 people killed, saying that they now had established that they believed at least eight people were killed in the fighting. He did not give any explanation for the revision or the higher number given earlier in the day.Doctors at five hospitals said the bodies of 23 people killed in the clashes were brought to emergency rooms and at least 150 people were treated for injuries, including a 7-year-old boy who was shot in the hip. Earlier the hospital count was 27 dead and there was no explanation for the revision. Doctors refused to give their names for fear of reprisals.Information Minister Berhan Hailu said the figures were exaggerated, and said 11 civilians and one police officer were killed, and 54 officers and 28 civilians were injured.He said demonstrators burned several buses and destroyed four houses, but that calm was returning to the streets of the city of 3 million people later Wednesday. He said the government was "sorry and sad" for the violence, but he blamed it on the main opposition party.The violence followed clashes Tuesday between protesters and police that killed eight people and wounded 43 others. Those renewed clashes erupted after 30 taxi drivers were arrested Monday for participating in demonstrations against the May 15 parliamentary elections -- a vote seen as a test of Prime Minister Zenawi Meles' commitment to reform.The elections gave Meles' Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front control of nearly two-thirds of parliament. Opposition parties say the vote and counting were marred by fraud, intimidation and violence, and accuse the ruling party of rigging the elections.One man said officers broke into his family's housing compound Wednesday, firing guns indiscriminately as they searched for the demonstrators who threw stones to express their unhappiness with the elections.Machine-gun fire and explosions rocked the capital, an opposition stronghold, and armored personnel carriers carrying special forces troops rumbled down streets littered with burning tires and broken glass.The violence spread across the city, reaching the doorsteps of the British, French, Kenyan and Belgian embassies -- all located in different parts of the capital. Workers at U.N. headquarters were told not to leave their offices.Police surrounded Zewditu Hospital, dragging out and arresting young men. Witnesses said security forces were rounding up young people in various parts of the city.Tigist Daniel, 16, said she brought her 50-year-old mother to a hospital after police shot her in the stomach.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Prince Charles dryly pronounced himself "still here" and "alive" Wednesday on his arrival at the White House for a visit showing off his new bride, Camilla. The Duchess of Cornwall, hoping to impress American Diana-philes on her first overseas trip as a British royal, was decidedly more enthusiastic.Greeted by President Bush and his wife, Laura, with a no-pomp welcome, the all-smiles Camilla could be heard declaring something Mrs. Bush said was "fabulous." As the foursome headed inside for an intimate lunch, Camilla briefly lagged behind, straying off the red carpet and showing the jostling media horde a shy grin and a little wave.There was no shortage of pageantry for the royal couple in the evening. A rare White House black-tie evening featured buffalo for dinner, music by cellist Yo-Yo Ma and dancing with several dozen luminaries from the worlds of politics, history, writing, diplomacy and sports -- but few high-wattage celebrities.Bush toasted the royal couple before dinner, saying their visit was a "reminder of the unique and enduring bond between the United Kingdom and the United States.""The people of the United States draw a lot of strength from having the United Kingdom as an ally," Bush said in an apparent reference to British support for the president decision to go to war in Iraq in 2003.In return, Charles quoted former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill as once saying the friendliness of Americans toward British travelers was "something to marvel at.""Well, nothing has changed, Mr. President," the prince said, as Camilla smiled throughout his toast.With an American tour that began Tuesday in New York, Charles and Camilla were looking to stoke trans-Atlantic enthusiasm for their new marriage. Camilla was long reviled in the British press as the woman who broke up Princess Diana's marriage to Charles, but has begun gaining acceptance with increasingly high-profile appearances since the longtime loves wed in April. (Watch a report on American media's reaction -- 1:34)Bush had something to gain as well. With the recent indictment of a top-level aide and the Iraq war among the troubles rocking his White House, a day feting royalty and underlining U.S.-British ties provided a welcome change of subject.The visit invited comparisons to Charles' 1985 U.S. trip with Diana. Then, the young princess wowed America with her demure smiles, fashion sense and well-remembered turn around the White House dance floor with John Travolta.On Wednesday, no military bands or ceremony heralded the royals' arrival -- only the president and first lady waiting in the White House driveway. No one anything more exuberant than handshakes and smiles."I'm still here. I'm alive," Charles replied drolly when a British reporter about the trip.Other than the two countries' ambassadors, the only guests invited to lunch of lemon sole in the Bushes' private dining room were members of the president's family, including his mother, Barbara.Then a lavish gift exchange. The Bushes presented custom-made his-and-hers leather saddles, each engraved with the crests of Charles' and Camilla's titles. The royal couple brought Churchill essays, a sterling-silver-and-turquoise pill box and a cachepot of English bone china.The conversation apparently did not turn to a potentially embarrassing issue -- Charles' passionate position on global warming that conflicts with Bush's. Instead, the discussion topics over the meal and a tour of the Oval Office ranged from sustainable farming and education to their children.From the elegance of the president's residential quarters, Charles and Camilla traveled to one of Washington's poorest neighborhoods to tour a public boarding school that Mrs. Bush wanted to showcase as an example of American educational innovation. A welcome banner held up by students proclaimed enthusiastically -- but inaccurately -- "Welcome Prince Charles and the Duchess of Wales.""There's obviously no slacking around here," the duchess said as she examined one eighth-grader's work.The early to-bed Bush typically shuns late nights and black-tie attire. Wednesday's formal dinner -- not termed an official state dinner, but little different in practice -- was just the sixth in Bush's presidency.With the Bush White House not known for its love of flash and celebrity, Washington's A-list was heavily represented on the guest list but Hollywood's was not.Among the well-known types seated for dinner were former first lady Nancy Reagan -- accompanied by television personality Merv Griffin -- and former NFL star Lynn Swann, newly installed Chief Justice John Roberts and Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honore, the military coordinator in the Gulf Coast region following Hurricane Katrina.Bush daughter Jenna was bringing a date -- boyfriend Henry Hager, the son of former Virginia lieutenant governor John Hager, now an assistant secretary at the Education Department.De la Renta designed Mrs. Bush's off-shoulder gown, in deep amber silk with taffeta leaves and flowers embroidered with sparkly beading. The duchess wore a black cashmere jacket trimmed with sparkly trim at the edges and a floor-length, pleated skirt of silk taffeta, dangling earrings and a diamond necklace.The 130 guests were seated in a State Dining Room outfitted in a simple gold-and-white decor. The four-course menu -- the debut of new White House chef Cristeta Comerford -- featured celery-and-shrimp soup, buffalo medallions, salad, with petits fours and chartreuse ice cream for dessert.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- The bodies recovered from a nursing home and hospital after Hurricane Katrina were so decomposed they may not yield any evidence for prosecuting crimes, the coroner overseeing the autopsies says.Louisiana's attorney general charged the owners of a flooded-out nursing home in Chalmette with negligent homicide in mid-September after 34 bodies were discovered. He has also subpoenaed 73 people in an investigation into rumors that patients were put out of their misery at New Orleans' flooded-out Memorial Medical Center, where 40 people were found dead.But Orleans Parish Coroner Frank Minyard, who is overseeing autopsies for the state, said this week that the bodies from the two institutions were so decomposed he listed the cause of death merely as "Katrina-related.""There is no physical evidence from the autopsy that these people were murdered or euthanized," Minyard said. "If they did not have a knife sticking in them or a bullet in the body, it's hard to pinpoint an exact cause."He was still waiting for toxicology reports but said unless those show abnormal levels of morphine or another drug, those tests will not help.Kris Wartelle, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Charles Foti, said the findings will not deter prosecutors."I know what our investigators found when they went down there. What he's saying does not change anything we're doing," she said.Jim Cobb, an attorney for the nursing home owners, said the lack of autopsy evidence will make it difficult to prove the charges against his clients.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

PASS CHRISTIAN, Mississippi (AP) -- As Hurricane Katrina approached, local historians were confident a vault filled with precious pre-Civil War pictures, maps and documents cataloguing the history of this Gulf Coast community would be safe.Hopes were high after the storm passed. The former bank building that served as the Pass Christian Historical Society headquarters washed away, but its vault still stood. Workers opened it to find wet, sopping papers -- the ruined history of a seaside town. Most of the collection including town ledgers and old newspapers is lost."Apparently, the vault did not hold back water," said Lou Rizzardi, an alderman and historical society member in the town of 6,750. "So it penetrated. Things got damaged because of water."All up and down the Mississippi Gulf Coast and into New Orleans, archivists and local historians are taking stock. They're worried about the future, but wondering also, what do they have left of their past after Katrina's 145 mph winds and a massive storm surge on August 29 splintered many communities and left others waterlogged.Many are considering whether it is wise to keep such valuable documents in disaster-prone areas.Family diaries and photographsElsewhere in Mississippi and New Orleans, archivists swooped in as soon as they could after Katrina to rescue documents, sending them in refrigerated vans to special labs for restoration.Just a few miles west of Pass Christian, the Hancock County Historical Society in Bay St. Louis fared much better with very little water damage and a vault that held, protecting thousands of documents, including family diaries and thousands of local photographs.Charles Harry Gray, the executive director, was prepared in case disaster struck. Over the years he had been making copies of all of the group's most treasured documents, including 30,000 pictures. Not one single photograph or record was lost.They are the pieces of Bay St. Louis' 306-year history that made the town of 8,230 what it is today, he said. Many of the copies were on computer disks and hard drives, others were sent to the University of Southern Mississippi, two hours north in Hattiesburg."It is imperative that you have copies in other locations because you never know what's going to happen, what the next catastrophe is going to be, and there certainly will be one," Gray said.There were no copies in Pass Christian. Rizzardi said the hope for the town's past lies with a local plumber, Billy Bourdin, who kept 3,400 vintage pictures on computer disks as a hobby.The actual photographs and his eight piles of newspaper clippings are gone, Bourdin said, but the disks survived."Stayed on the desk shelf during the storm. So far they've meant very little. Maybe they'll mean a little more now," said Bourdin, who displayed many pictures at his Bourdin Brothers plumbing shop downtown, a two-story brick building whose first floor was gutted by the storm.Rizzardi finds himself second-guessing his trust in the vault.'Don't want to come and take it from them'Perhaps the state capital at Jackson, about 170 miles to the north, would be a good place to store duplicates, he said. "Somebody off the coast that has a vault, though we would like to have them close at hand so we have access."Mingo Tingle, a preservationist with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, says taking local historical documents away from towns for safekeeping is a touchy subject."This is their history," Tingle said. "It belongs to them. We don't want to come and take it from them. If the local historians would just make copies, send the originals to places like Jackson where we have the facilities to file that."There are archivists working all along the coast, he said, in such cities as Gulfport and Biloxi to help local historians salvage what they can."We've had people over there, talking to them, how to save their records. How to dry them out," Tingle said. "Mold grows very quickly."Mold and water damage affected thousands more documents that could be saved. Edmond Boudreaux, chairman of the Mississippi Coast Historical and Genealogical Society, climbed into the Biloxi Public Library the day after Katrina to assess the damage to the group's collection, which was housed there.While most items were safe in a vault upstairs, many items had to be freeze dried and sent away for treatment, he said."Once it's wet, you don't want it to dry out," Boudreaux said. "It will stick together. You can slowly warm it up and bring it apart while it's still moist."Greatest loss in New OrleansBoudreaux said he never thought Katrina's waters would reach the library."Nobody ever dreamed that we would have one do as much damage to the historical integrity," he said. "You grab things just as you're walking out the door, but we would have taken a lot more. We didn't know it was going to be as bad as it was."The greatest loss in New Orleans came at City Park, where experts say archives dating back to 1892 were under 6 to 7 feet of water for several weeks."Four drawers of vintage photographs from 1890 made from glassplate negatives, 50 drawers of architectural drawings, uncountable snapshots, scrapbooks," said Sally Reeves with the Louisiana Historical Society in New Orleans, ticking off the losses. "None of it was copied. There was no money."The New Orleans Notarial Archives, which hold all private-sector contracts back to the 1730s, were not harmed, she said.Boudreaux says there is joy in finding little pieces that survived the storm."It's one little victory in all the disappointments," he said. "One photograph, one document."Charles Sullivan, a history professor at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, said quirky examples of local history are often difficult to hold onto."The things that they have that are unique, that nobody else had them, they're gone," Sullivan said. "Nobody will ever have them again. We have already lost so much in (1969 Hurricane) Camille. All we had left of that loss was the documents and pictures and for them to be lost too is doubly disastrous."Back in Bay St. Louis, some of Gray's historical gems sit safely on shelves. There's a complete set of "War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Army" next the homemade scrapbook "History of the Bay High Parent Teacher Association," complete with black and white photographs from the 1970s.Gray said he hopes local groups will develop the technology to protect their collections by the time the next hurricane approaches."We have to close out this chapter of our lives," he said. "And put the photographs of what happened to us and our houses in the albums with the others."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- Researchers from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland believe they have captured traces of radiation from long-extinguished stars that were "born" during the universe's infancy.The research represents the first tangible -- but not conclusive evidence of these earliest stars, which are thought to have produced the raw materials from which future stars, including our sun, were created.The Big Bang, the explosion believed to have created the universe, is thought to have occurred 13.7 billion years ago. About 100 million years later, hydrogen atoms began to merge and ignite, creating brightly burning stars. Just what these stars were like wasn't clear."Where they lived, how big they were, how much light they emitted, whether they even existed, we weren't sure," said astrophysicist Alexander Kashlinsky, the lead author of the article appearing in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. "What we've done, we think, is obtain the first information about these stars."Kashlinsky's team used NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to measure the cosmic radiation, which is infrared light invisible to the human eye, in a small sliver of the sky. The team then subtracted the radiation levels of all known galaxies and suggested that the leftover measurements include radiation given off by those earliest stars.The exercise was like taking a recording of a stadium full of loud people and subtracting the noise of every person except one to hear the voice of that single individual.If the team's conclusions are correct, the study will advance understanding of how the universe originally lit up.Avi Loeb, a Harvard astronomy professor who was not involved in the research, said the early universe was probably dark for half a million years. Later, hydrogen coalesced into brightly burning stars that were hundreds to a million times more massive than the sun, and these are the stars whose fingerprints Kashlinsky's team hopes it has found."That's why this (study) was so exciting -- for the first time, we're looking at potential evidence of how the first starlight was produced and when it was formed," Loeb said.An astronomy professor at the California Institute of Technology who was not involved in the study cautiously agreed with Kashlinsky's conclusion. In a commentary published by Nature, Richard Ellis wrote, "Even a minor blunder in removing these foreground signals might lead to a spurious result," but he said in an interview that Kashlinsky's team did the best job it could given the constraints of the technology used."I can't find anything wrong with the analysis. Of course, the next step is for other astronomers to try to prove it right," Ellis said.Ned Wright, an astronomy professor at UCLA, was more doubtful. He argued that the process of removing the radiation contribution of other stars is too imprecise to make the team's conclusions valid, and that the measurement it saw is not the signal of ancient stars."I'm very skeptical of this result. I think it's wrong," he said. "I think what they're seeing is incompletely subtracted residuals from nearby sources."Loeb agreed that Kashlinsky's results were not irrefutable, but he said the team's conclusion is a plausible first step that represents an important milestone toward understanding how stars first formed.In the same issue of Nature, a team of Chinese researchers reported on a separate astronomical issue. They said they had found that the super-massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way is small enough that it would fit between the Earth and the sun. That puts it at half the size of previous estimates.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

CHHUMBER, Pakistan-controlled Kashmir (CNN) -- Dozens of villages containing hundreds of thousands of people have received little or no aid nearly four weeks after a devastating earthquake hit Pakistan and India.With the official death toll in Pakistan alone now topping 73,000, questions are being asked about the pace of relief efforts and the lack of international aid flowing to the region.An estimated 3.3 million people remain homeless as winter approaches in the mountainous Kashmir region, raising fears of an even worse humanitarian disaster to come.Apart from an aid shortfall, the region's challenging terrain is hampering the relief efforts.In the remote Pakistan village of Chhumber, devastation accompanies desperation as temperatures drop to freezing and the first snows of winter threaten. Since the 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck on October 8, this village has had to survive on the occasional food drop by helicopter and minimal supplies delivered via the rough and treacherous mountain road."My future is black," one woman said. "I lost my husband, I have no home, no blankets, no tent and the snow is coming."Another woman had had two of her children die but she cannot afford to think too much of them. Her concern now is for her baby and her young boy who has a broken arm that needs attention."It is painful, it is tragic. There are no words that can describe this," Javed Rathore said.Rathore, who has returned to his home village from the U.S. to help with the relief effort, urged the Pakistan government and the international community to do more."I don't know how these people will survive. They have nothing," he said.It is a scene repeated across the region.The quake affected more than 2,775 villages, 41 of which have not yet been reached, Pakistan's Maj. Gen. Farooq Ahmad Khan said Wednesday.Another 69,000 have severe injuries, according to the general.Top U.N. relief coordinator Jan Egeland said Wednesday, "there are many thousands, potentially tens of thousands, up there in the mountains that are wounded we haven't gotten to."A "second wave of death" could come from "people who could freeze to death, starve to death, or just be sick because of infected water," he said according to a report from The Associated Press.U.N. officials say money for distribution of relief supplies is running dangerously low. Donors have pledged $131 million of the $550 million sought by the United Nations for emergency quake aid.Egeland said international aid for the quake relief had so far been far less than what it was following last year's Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, which killed 178,000 people and left an additional 50,000 missing.Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told media Wednesday his government was giving money to victims and survivors to help rebuild their homes and their lives.Musharraf also said the government was finding new sites for villages that were destroyed."I have tasked the earthquake reconstruction and rehabilitation authority to identify which are the villages that need to be totally rebuilt, so we find a new site for that village," the president said."Leaving them aside, in the partially destroyed villages and people in mountains we need to make sure that they reconstruct their houses immediately," he added.Apart from Pakistan, Indian authorities have blamed the quake for another 1,200 deaths in Indian-controlled Kashmir.CNN Correspondent Stan Grant and Producer Syed Mohsin Naqvi contributed to this report. Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Deadly violence coinciding with the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan left 27 Iraqis dead Wednesday in Musayyib, Baghdad and Kirkuk.Separately, two U.S. Marines died in a helicopter crash near Ramadi, and a U.S. soldier died when his patrol came under attack near Balad.Coalition warplanes in western Iraq, meanwhile, pounded safe houses and killed several insurgents near the Syrian border, where U.S. and Iraqi forces say militants are crossing into Iraq to conduct attacks.The bloodshed occurred as candidates began campaigning for the December 15 parliamentary elections. U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned that militants will keep trying to derail the democratic process.The worst attack occurred near a Shiite mosque and a busy shopping area in Musayyib, a town 45 miles (72 kilometers) south of Baghdad in a region nicknamed the "Triangle of Death" because of insurgent activity and widespread lawlessness. The town is in the northern part of Babil province.At least 20 people were killed and 60 others were wounded in a suicide vehicle bombing, a police official said. A minibus detonated in an area bustling with people buying clothes and food for Eid al-Fitr, the celebration at the end of Ramadan, police said. Among the casualties were women and children.Last month, police said 12 construction workers were killed near Musayyib when gunmen opened fire on them, and in July a suicide bombing near a parked fuel tanker and a gas station in the center of the town killed more than 90 people and wounded scores of others. (Full story)In Kirkuk, a tense and ethnically diverse city comprising Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens, a car bombing killed two people and wounded seven others, all Iraqis, the police chief there told CNN. The incident occurred during the afternoon in a Kirkuk business district. Two of the injured were women.In Baghdad, roadside bombs Wednesday morning killed at least five people and wounded eight others, Iraqi emergency police said. Police also reported the Tuesday evening shooting deaths in the capital of a colonel with the Interior Ministry and a commando. Three police officers were wounded in the attack. (Watch: Homemade bombs get more sophisticated -- 2:26)In and around Husayba, near the Syrian border, coalition forces conducted air strikes against three suspected al Qaeda in Iraq safe houses.The military said unspecified sources reported that Abu Asim -- a senior foreign fighter for al Qaeda in Iraq -- was killed in one of the safe houses. It said the sources reported that Asim had contacts in Syria who arranged the smuggling of foreign fighters and suicide bombers into the Husayba region. U.S. and Iraqi troops have been launching raids and offensives for months against insurgents in the area. On October 23, the military said 20 al Qaeda in Iraq fighters were killed in two raids in Husayba. (Full story)Air strikes follow copter crashThe Marines said two pilots died Wednesday morning in a helicopter crash outside Ramadi, and a warplane hours later pounded an insurgent base near the crash site with two 500-pound bombs. (Watch: U.S. forces move to recover the bodies -- 2:05)Marines do not know what caused the crash of the AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter gunship, commonly used as air support and escort for ground troops. Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, is about 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Baghdad. The Marines recently increased their numbers in the Sunni Arab-dominated province."The air strike against the building was related to the crash of the helicopter," a Marine spokesman said.Also on Wednesday, a U.S. soldier from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division died when his patrol was attacked near Balad, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Baghdad, the military said. Another soldier was wounded.The military said one of the two attackers was killed after he threw a hand grenade at the patrol, while the other fled into a building and continued to engage the soldiers with small arms fire. Air Force aircraft dropped two bombs at the site, killing the second attacker, the military said.A Task Force Baghdad soldier also was killed Wednesday when a patrol struck an improvised explosive device south of Baghdad, the military said. The incident was being investigated, it said.With those deaths, the number of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war reached 2,033. That total includes the Tuesday deaths of a Marine and a sailor reported Wednesday by the U.S. military.They were killed by roadside bomb Tuesday in Ramadi, the military said.Other developmentsDays before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Saddam Hussein agreed in principle to accept an offer of exile from the United Arab Emirates, but the Iraqi president's conditions were not met and the proposal went nowhere, a UAE government senior official told CNN. (Full story)The Iraq Defense Ministry has issued a call for junior officers from the old Iraqi army to join the new military, part of an effort to bolster the country's forces. The recruitment applies to people who held officer ranks of major, captain, first lieutenant and lieutenant. According to a recent U.S. Pentagon report to Congress, about 86,900 people were in the Iraqi army as of September 19. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld indicated that the number of American forces in Iraq could rise temporarily as Iraqis prepare to vote in mid-December parliamentary elections, according to The Associated Press. (Full story)Angry words rang out Tuesday on Capitol Hill as Democrats forced the Senate into a temporary closed session to pressure the Republican majority into completing an investigation of the intelligence underpinning the 2003 invasion of Iraq. (Full story)CNN's Ingrid Formanek, Cal Perry, Aneesh Raman, Barbara Starr and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (AP) -- Five Muslim football fans were detained and questioned during a game at Giants Stadium because they were congregating near an air duct on a night former President Bush was in the stadium, the FBI said Wednesday.Some of the Muslims said they did not know they were in a sensitive area, and they complained that they were subjected to racial profiling while they were praying, as their faith requires five times a day."I'm as American as apple pie and I'm sitting there and now I'm made to feel like I'm an outsider, for no reason other than I have a long beard or that I prayed," said Sami Shaban, a 27-year-old Seton Hall Law School student who lives in Piscataway.At a news conference Wednesday, Shaban said he and four friends had just gotten to the September 19 New York Giants-New Orleans Saints game when they left their seats to pray. Around halftime, 10 security officers and three state troopers approached the men and told them to come with them, Shaban said.The men were questioned and then were not allowed to return to their seats, but were instead assigned to seats in another section, Shaban said. Three guards stood near them, and escorted them to their cars when they left the stadium, he said.FBI agent Steven Siegel, a spokesman for the bureau's FBI office, said the men had aroused suspicion because they were congregating near the main air intake duct. Bush was in the stadium that night as part of a fundraising campaign he and former President Clinton were leading for victims of Hurricane Katrina."You had 80,000 people there, Bush 41 was there, and you had a group of gentlemen gathering in an area not normally used by the public right near the main air intake duct for the stadium, and a food preparation facility," Siegel said. "It was where they were, not what they were doing."The site is now fenced off and is no longer accessible to fans."We do not profile anyone that comes into our arena, stadium or racetrack on any basis," said George Zoffinger, president of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which operates the stadium. "There was no profiling of our customers. I want to make that clear."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(CNN) -- Just a year after President Bush won a second term in a tight election, his administration faces plummeting approval ratings and troubles including rising energy prices, an indictment at the White House and waning support for the war in Iraq. CNN.com asked readers to pose as advisers to the president and offer suggestions for ways the administration could get back on track. Here is a sampling of those responses, sent in by e-mail. Some of them have been edited for length and clarity.The president seems unsure of what he is doing. Simplify your goals and put the full weight of your office under them. For this country's sake, you have to succeed. Sam Udofa, Rochester, New YorkHe has to include Democrats in the process of governing. The "either you're with me or you're against me" attitude is one of his biggest shortcomings. I resent his attitude that because I disagree with him on something makes me somehow less of a citizen. Bernie Clemens, Indianapolis, IndianaNone. I think he is doing a wonderful job and smiling the entire way. Who protected our country after September 11? Who protects our country today? I think the Democrats should look at their own party that is where the problems lie. There is nothing they can do to discourage our party. Nothing. We are all smiling. Berenice Milligan, Louisville, KentuckyIt would be helpful, if Mr. Bush would cancel the tax breaks he gave to the rich and repeal the new bankruptcy law. Many people are losing their jobs, and many are ill and are running out of money. These folks don't know how they are going to keep up financially. We are spending billions on an unpopular war and not taking care of the people at home. Many of us go to work every day, and STILL can't make it. Minimum credit card payments are being doubled, thanks to a new law, and anyone who had trouble making minimum payments before is surely not going to be able to make these doubled payments. It seems so hopeless. This law should be repealed, also. Patricia Lucas, Pontiac, MichiganStop and listen, Mr. Bush! We've been trying to tell you what's important to us ... who is it you think you serve again? It's adequate health care, a sound economy, right to quality of life, truth in government, get Osama and get out of Iraq. Developing good listening skills is fundamental to taking the actions that will restore your badly tarnished image. Herb Dempsey, Cary, North CarolinaBush is doing a great job taking care of something that should have been dealt with by the last president: The spread of terrorism. Others (Europe) have been "dealing" with terrorism in a defensive manner for decades, and it's become obvious by our intervention that an offensive strategy is more effective. If we just give up, it will only give those who want to hurt us all the more reason to come back. Your doing a good job, Mr. President. Don't let anyone else tell you different. Pete Arnold, Apple Valley, MinnesotaPresident Bush, remember that you are the president of the United States, not the world. We don't have the right to invade other countries, kill their women and children and destroy their business, no matter what. We have so many issues at home that need to be addressed -- so many children living in poverty, so many people without access to health care, so many living on the streets with mental illness because they can't get medicine, so many poor children receiving a second-rate education, so many, many problems. It is time for America to look inward and to heal the wounds we have here. You have said, Mr. President, that you have gone into Afghanistan and Iraq because those people deserve a better life. What about the millions of people here that spend their days wishing, hoping that something, someone could change their life? Bring them food, or a job, or a safe place to live. It is time for America to heal its own wounds, Mr. President. Mary, Temecula, CaliforniaMr. President, the very first thing to do is admit you have this country in a mess. Get rid of your advisers and begin to think for yourself. Remember your core supporters do not represent the majority of this country and you are supposed to serve the people of this country; not the other way around. You work for us ... ALL of us. Carol Roop, Mitchell, IndianaI believe Harry Truman could provide the best advice, with the simple words "The Buck Stops Here." If this administration would take responsibility for its wrongdoings, rather than placing the blame elsewhere or, worse still, forging ahead regardless of the wisdom of the decision, it would go a long way towards restoring the integrity of our government. Drew Hunt, Normal, IllinoisHi. I am currently serving as a U.S. soldier in South Korea. I will not bash the Army or the president. But what I will suggest is to bring some of the many soldiers home from Iraq. Every day we spend over there, more and more soldiers are dying. This is not a popular war anymore like it was after 9/11. Bush could probably save face for his presidency by showing humility to the U.S. soldiers in both Iraq and Korea and let them come home (even if they just come home for long R&R tours instead of the measly two weeks) and be with their families. An anonymous soldier, Pyongtek, South KoreaBush should start listening to the American people by bringing our troops home, removing Rumsfeld, appointing moderate justices and finding Osama. As a citizen who voted for Bush in 2004, I realize it was a huge mistake. Brent Finnell, Greenville, North CarolinaLose the "stay the course no matter what" philosophy, and the "either you're with us or against us" mindset. It's cost them Colin Powell, and other quality people, including 2,000-plus American soldiers. The Bush gang has isolated itself from the rest of the country, and a lot of the world by being a sealed unit. No matter how good you look at the beginning, eventually you have to change that suit -- it's starting to stink! Dennis Quinn, Wonalancet, New HampshireThe key things that I think President Bush could do: stop trying to fight the fires of the moment (i.e. the Rove/Libby deal and so forth) and actually do something, versus reacting. Unfortunately, he missed a prime time with the Supreme Court nominee. I feel it should have been a person with more technology and privacy experience. Scott Goad, Bloomfield, IndianaAdmit that you and your senior Pentagon staff made mistakes. Replace the senior Pentagon staff and develop a realistic plan to bring some of the troops home. Lee King, Salt Lake City, UtahMr. Bush's (dis)approval ratings are well-deserved, but if he wants to raise them, he could try to show that he really cares about the middle class, and especially the poor people of this country. So far, tax cuts for the wealthy and his clear preference for corporations over people do not leave much hope for the remainder of his term. Richard Painter, Sun Lakes, ArizonaDo something that is genuinely beneficial to the American people. Like capture Osama bin Laden, or bring the troops home from Iraq, or protect whistle-blowers who report corporate crime that is in collusion with government actions of extortion. Joshua Shakopee, MinnesotaI do not think there is a lot he can do to regain the rating he once had. I think pulling our service people out of Iraq would help, but we have gotten ourselves so deep already that pulling out now would only put our country at greater risk of terroristic attacks or worse. And pulling out of Iraq now could likely lead to Saddam regaining control in Iraq. Martha Prater, Rusk, TexasPush legislation to regulate oil companies as public utilities -- just like electric, natural gas and telephone companies. This would require that companies obtain regulatory approval before raising gas prices. Andy Park, Largo, FloridaThe president could do numerous things, beginning with changing policies that contribute to animosities and/or hostilities directed toward our country. Stop agitating the peoples of the world by getting in bed with and supporting corrupt so-called tyrant leaders. Alternative fuels and a call for the legalization of medical marijuana and the farming of hemp for industrial uses. Wage a war on government corruption at all levels of government and ease off on at least some of the oppression against the people. Bring the troops home immediately and stop meddling in foreign affairs while this country has so much corruption of its own that it isn't even dealing with. Clean up your own back yard firstly and lead by example. Doing the right thing when you have the power to do so isn't really that hard, but one firstly has to want to do the right thing. Richard Mark Jones, Purvis, MississippiThe president needs to remember who elected him, we the poor and middle class people. Not Big Oil, Halliburton or any of the other big business CEOs he has been courting or paying homage to. If he gets rid of us, who will support the country then? Sandra Crater, Milford, IllinoisIgnore the posturing of the Democrats and the sniping of the press and get on with the job of governing and leading the country. STAY FOCUSED! Bill Hatcher, Capron, VirginiaIn light of recent news that U.S. oil companies have set record quarterly profits, the president could take a very public position and invite the CEOs of U.S. oil companies to the White House. He could use this opportunity to remind them that they have had enormous success over the years because of the blessings of the remarkable nation they are a part of. Then for the good of the country, he could ask them to return the favor and help the country out by reducing gasoline prices. Chris Denney, Oshkosh, Wisconsin If President Bush wants to take back his presidency, he should pay more attention to the wants and needs of the American people, rather than to warring factions within the Republican Party. He should also take responsibility for the failings of his administration, namely Scooter Libby's implicated involvement with the Plame CIA leak and the Department of Homeland Security's inability to deal with natural disasters on American soil. He needs to remember that government is "for the people, by the people" and do his best to serve all of us. Molly Wright, Berne, New YorkI think Bush can save his office by focusing on improving domestic issues, such as the poor (Katrina), and bring our armed forces back home, address global issues that face our children, such as global warming, support other energy sources for transportation, stop the growing gap dividing the rich and poor. Teresa, Burbank, CaliforniaThe best thing Bush could do is revive the military draft. This war is something we should all share in and not just the bottom 25 percent of high school graduates. Patrick Wright, San Gabriel, CaliforniaMr. Bush should reach out to ALL Americans, not just his base. He displays a shocking willingness to shock the body politic by playing to the radical right. He should make good on his campaign mantra and be a uniter not a divider. If he won't give ground, he will be ground into meaninglessness as we the people step over him to do what's right for the majority. T.K. Hodgson, West Hollywood, CaliforniaStop spending like a drunken sailor and close the borders and kick out a few million illegals. That will shake loose some jobs and raise wages because of less cheap workers who can work for 12 to 13 bucks and have a nice car or a house. Andrew M. Herold, Beltsville, Maryland First, President Bush could help his approval ratings by getting off the evangelical tract! Yes, we are a Christian-founded country, but all Christians are not evangelical! All others have freedom to choose their religion, or none, and he should be inclusive of all. Cheri Windsor, ColoradoGive full true backing (no lip service) to the people that voted twice to put a man in office to gain back our country. No euthanasia, no abortion, no persecution of Christians, no judicial tyranny, no homosexual privileges, no attacks on the institution of marriage, no attacks on the family, etc. Pedro A. Delgado, Miami, FloridaI don't think that Bush can get back on track. He is SO FAR off the mainstream track, that I think he has fallen over! He is completely out of touch with America and has no regard for the consequences of his wasteful agenda and corrupt business dealings. I just hope America can emerge in 2008 without being totally destroyed. Jennifer, Georgetown, Delaware