IT company backing baby unit appeal

A Bath IT company is the latest to join a scheme offering supportto an appeal for a new baby care unit.

IPL, in Grove Street, has been raising money to support theForever Friends Appeal Space to Grow campaign.

A team of runners took part in the Bath Half Marathon, andsponsor money went towards the appeal for a new neonatal intensivecare unit at the Royal United Hospital.

Chief operating officer John Davey said the firm was delighted tojoin the NICU Corporate Partnership scheme.

"I would like to thank the IPL team who took part in this year'sBath Half Marathon and our staff for their generosity in supportingthe runners". One in ten babies is born …

Chavez Leads Rally Against Bush Visit

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez launched another verbal assault on President Bush Friday as he led some 20,000 supporters in an anti-American rally, calling the U.S. leader a "political cadaver" and blasting his policies as "imperialist."

"Gringo go Home!" Chavez shouted to raucous applause in a crowded soccer stadium, speaking even as Bush was arriving in neighboring Uruguay as part of a Latin America tour.

Chavez said he didn't come to Buenos Aires to "sabotage" Bush's visit and called the timing a coincidence.

"The U.S. president today is a true political cadaver," Chavez said, alluding to Bush's waning years in office. "What the …

1 in 50 American children experiences homelessness

One of every 50 American children experiences homelessness, according to a new report that says most states have inadequate plans to address the worsening and often-overlooked problem.

The report, being released Tuesday by the National Center on Family Homelessness, analyzes data from 2005-2006. It estimates that 1.5 million children experienced homelessness at least once that year, and says the problem is surely worse now because of the foreclosures and job losses of the deepening recession.

"If we could freeze-frame it now, it would be bad enough," said Democratic Sen. Robert Casey, who wrote a foreward to the report. "By end of this year, it …

Brothers' Freedom Tour is rolling

There may be no limit to what two freedom-loving Americans withbicycles can do to advance the cause of liberty.

Michael and Brian O'Malley will settle for $250,000.

That's the amount the brothers from the Beverly neighborhood onthe South Side are hoping to raise for orphanages and children'shospitals in Eastern Europe.

The O'Malleys will embark in mid-May on the Celebrate FreedomTour, a 4,000-mile journey through six nations - East Germany,Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.

They are seeking 10 major sponsors at $25,000 each and havereceived a commitment from the American Chapter of the InternationalRed Cross to distribute the …

The Bristol norms for age of acquisition, imageability, and familiarity

Ratings of age of acquisition (AoA), imageability, and familiarity were collected for 1,526 words. The methodology made use of a modular approach, in which the full sample of words was divided into five separate blocks. Within each block, each word was rated on each of the three variables by 20 participants (undergraduate students from the University of Bristol). Analyses comparing these ratings to existing norm databases demonstrated that this methodology resulted in high reliability (assessed by Cronbach's α) and validity. The ratings were also transformed to be compatible with the Gilhooly and Logie (1980) norms. This transformation resulted in a set of norms for 3,394 words, …

`Just my day,' says NY doctor who gets building violations after home burns down

An obstetrician saved his wife and six children from a fire that ravaged their home, delivered a baby while the house was still smoldering _ and then got cited with building violations.

Dr. Herman Weiss said Friday "was just my day."

The 37-year-old awoke around 3 a.m. to the screech of a smoke detector and the sight of flames inching up an outside wall of his Long Island home. He got his family to …

Recruiting, marketing success for Catholic school system

The Archdiocese of Chicago made it to the new school year without having to close any of its 255 schools.

That doesn't mean the Catholic school system has returned to the powerhouse it was 50 years ago, but the head of the parochial schools here says it appears that aggressive marketing and recruiting are starting to pay off.

"For a long time, Catholic schools didn't necessarily toot their own horn," said Sister Mary Paul McCaughey, schools superintendent for the archdiocese. The notion that Catholic parents would send their kids to Catholic schools "was just expected. There …