| Ultrafit: Icy beards, numb digits and derring-do
What: A self-supported 135-mile endurance race through Minnesota's Kabetogama and Sturgeon River state forests. When: This year's event begins Monday and runs through next Wednesday. About 60 people have registered. From the beginning ... : The event, first run four years ago, is organized by Pierre and Cheryl Ostor of White Bear Lake. ... to the end: Racers can bike, ski or run the course, which follows the Arrowhead State Trail from a parking lot near International Falls south to a lodge on Lake Vermilion near Tower, carrying all their own food, water and survival gear. Bikers have won the first three races, but with deep snow, skis could prove superior. Info: www.arrowheadultra.com. .
Weekly entertainment calendar
Cirque du Soleil's Saltimbanco": This acrobatic show explores the urban experience in all its aspects, 1 & 5 p.m. Joe Louis Arena, 600 Civic Center Dr., Detroit. 313-983-6606. $37.50-$67.50. Home Improvement Show: More than 300 exhibitors, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Rock Financial Showplace, 46100 Grand River, Novi. 248-737-4477. $10, $9 seniors. Free for ages 12 and younger. Parking fee is $5. Lenny Kravitz: 7:30 p.m. The Fillmore Detroit, 2115 Woodward, Detroit. 313-961-5450. $35, $45. Moiseyev Dance Company: A company of more than 200 that preserves the best traditions of Russian folk dancing, 6 p.m. Hill Auditorium, 825 N. University, Ann Arbor. 734-764-2538. $10-$40. North American International Auto Show: Entering its 20th year as an international event, 9 a.m.-7 p.m.
Column: Non-annual guide to the ‘08 presidential candidates™
Tuesday will be Utah's time to shine with its own primary. But with so many presidential candidates in this year's election, how is a Utah voter to decide? Perhaps you can't tell the difference between John Edwards (dropped out), John McCain (still in) and John Tesh (crappy musician). Maybe you think Hillary Clinton is shrill, Mitt Romney is wishy-washy and Mike Huckabee is just plain crazy. How are you to know for sure, though, just how shrill, wishy-washy or crazy they might be? For that reason, we've put together Nick and Ryan's Non-Annual Guide to the Presidential Candidates™. Learn about the candidates, learn about their issues and, most importantly, learn whether they prefer Ginger, MaryAnn or Mary Hart (that's two "Entertainment Tonight" jokes in one column! Zing!). Although we might know next to nothing about the presidential candidates, we dutifully and American-ly pass on that lack of knowledge to you, in no particular order.
Pedal power: Yuma woman shares Tour de France past
Some people walk into the pages of history. Betsy King chose to pedal. Today this spunky Yuma gal works far from the spotlight, doing her best to make folks feel better as a family nurse practitioner. But just a few years ago, King was earning thunderous applause and making headlines around the globe. That's when King racked up more than 10,000 miles a year on her bicycle, making her living by leaving everyone in the dust. That's back when King made history by competing in the world's most famous bike race of them all: the Tour de France. "All the crowds cheering and the people throwing water on you," she said, describing the thrill of crossing the finishing line. "It's amazing. It gives me chills just thinking about it." King competed in the Tour de France not just once, but five of the six years that a women's race was offered in the 1980s.
Elevate Cycles opens new showroom
The owners of Elevate Cycles Inc. of Saratoga Springs have opened a second bicycle showroom and repair shop on Route 9 in Clifton Park. Husband and wife team Chris and Suzanne Pitts opened the Clifton Park store on Oct. 15 to fill a void in the market after a previous bike shop closed. The new location at 1570 Route 9 in Clifton Park has a 1,200-square-foot showroom and about 1,500 square feet of storage and repair shop space. Elevate sells bicycles, cross country skis and carries a variety of product lines including Cannondale, Fuji, Jamis, Scott and Eastern BMX. Chris Pitts, 37, opened his Saratoga Springs shop at 35 Van Dam St. 13 years ago under the name All Outdoors, but later changed the name to Elevate Cycles. Pitts and his wife will operate the two stores in conjunction with part time help, including three to four employees in Clifton Park.
Barack Obama: My America
We met women who had been missionaries in Kenya and greeted me in Swahili, and farmers who tracked the financial pages of The Wall Street Journal before setting out on their tractors. Several times a day, I pointed out to Dan the number of men we met sporting white linen slacks or silk Hawaiian shirts. In the small dining room of a Democratic party official in Du Quoin, I asked the local state's attorney about crime trends in his largely rural, almost uniformly white county, expecting him to mention joy-riding sprees or folks hunting out of season. "The Gangster Disciples," he said, munching on a carrot. "We've got an all-white branch down here – kids without jobs, selling dope and speed." By the end of the week, I was sorry to leave. Not simply because I had made so many new friends, but because in the faces of all the men and women I'd met I had recognised pieces of myself.
Only digital TV will do in a year
Thousands more will have to buy some new gear or lose the use of spare televisions in guest bedrooms, kitchens and dens.
And those battery-operated televisions people buy for hurricane emergencies. Forget about them. Theyll be useless.
The Federal Communications Commission demands that local television affiliates must broadcast only digital signals by Feb. 17, 2009, so the analog signals previously captured by set-top antennas will no longer be available for TV.
The move, the feds say, will free up space for public safety communications such as those by police and fire departments. Some of the available space also will be auctioned to wireless companies that will be able to provide consumers with more advanced services.
People who subscribe to cable or satellite programming wont be affected, at least on those televisions connected to cable boxes or satellite receivers.
Suspected Al Qaeda Militant Arrested in Bhutto Parade Bombing
Qari Saifullah Akhtar, who has been in Pakistani custody before, was arrested on Monday in Lahore in connection with the bombing that hit Bhutto's homecoming parade when she returned from exile, before her killing in a second homicide attack Dec. 27, Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz said. "He is involved in the blasts in Karsaz. Therefore he has been arrested," Nawaz told The Associated Press, referring to the Karachi neighborhood where the October bombing happened. .
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