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Film: Comparing 'The Blind Side' and 'Precious'

By BARBARA VANCHERI, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Hollywood serves up a heaping of hope in the days before Thanksgiving, although one comes in a palatable PG-13 package and the other with a provocative, harrowing R.

"The Blind Side" and "Precious" focus on young people who, without the kindness of strangers and their own determination, would be doomed to horrid existences.

A look at how the movies stack up:

Adamson: A bit of good, lots of bad in '09 NASCAR season

By SCOTT ADAMSON, Scripps Howard News Service

The 2009 NASCAR season heads for an anticlimactic finish, with Jimmie Johnson needing to simply run around in the middle of the pack on Sunday to win an unprecedented fourth consecutive Sprint Cup title, and Kyle Busch wrapping up the Nationwide crown by starting his engine on Saturday.

Ron Hornaday, of course, took top honors in the Camping World Truck Series last week.

Walters: Newest California budget clash to be bloody

By DAN WALTERS, Sacramento Bee

When Mac Taylor, the California Legislature's chief budget adviser, declared this week that the state budget enacted just four months ago is already billions of dollars upside down, no one in the Capitol should have been surprised.

Week 11 NFL Capsules

By GERRY DULAC, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Capsule previews for Week 11 around the NFL. All times Eastern.

SUNDAY:

Pittsburgh Steelers (6-3) at Kansas City Chiefs (2-7), 1 p.m.

Since the middle of the 2007 season, the Chiefs are a pitiful 4-30, a record only the Lions (3-31) can eclipse for futility. Should be a nice way for QB Ben Roethlisberger to spend his first game in Arrowhead Stadium.

Family Film: New movies, including 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon'

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A guide to movies from a family perspective:

"The Twilight Saga: New Moon"

-- Rated: PG-13.

-- Suitable for: Mature tweens and up.

-- What you should know: This is the second movie based on Stephenie Meyer's best seller about a human girl, her vampire boyfriend and, now, a werewolf rival.

-- Language: About nine stronger versions of "heck" or "darn."

Parker: Sodom in the nation's capital

By STAR PARKER, Scripps Howard News Service

At a time when our country is sick, it shouldn't surprise that one our sickest places is our nation's capital.

The poverty rate of Washington, DC, almost 20 percent, is one of the highest in the nation. Its child poverty rate is the nation's highest..

DC's public school system, with a graduation rate of less than 50 percent, is one of the worst in the country.

College football caps including Ohio State-Michigan

By JOHN LINDSAY, Scripps Howard News Service

Capsule previews for Saturday's top college games. All times Eastern and all rankings Associated Press.

No. 9 OHIO STATE (9-2) at MICHIGAN (5-6), Noon, ABC.

FAVORITE: Ohio State by 12.

COACHES: Jim Tressel (92-21 in 9th year at Michigan) and Rich Rodriguez (8-15 in second year at Michigan).

Belichick 'cursed out' Pats after Colts loss

By SHALISE MANZA YOUNG, The Providence Journal

FOXBORO, Mass. - While many National Football League teams enjoy "Victory Mondays" -- when players get the Monday after a win off, New England Patriots Bill Belichick gave his players Monday off this week despite their loss at Indianapolis.

Chinese drywall investigation could be released Monday

By ISAAC WOLF, Scripps Howard News Service

A highly anticipated federal investigation of Chinese drywall is expected to be released Monday, and it could be worth thousands of dollars for affected homeowners.

That's because the report may trigger the availability of federal funds that affected homeowners could use to lessen their losses, according to a spokesman for Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.

Editorial: The politics of mammograms

An editorial / By Dale McFeatters, Scripps Howard News Service

The government-funded -- but independent -- U.S. Preventive Service Task Force, made up of 16 physicians and public-health experts, did what it was supposed to, and indeed should be done routinely under any health-care-reform plan, a periodic examination and re-evaluation of current medical practice.

Tucker: Unbeatens create another BCS mess

By JOHN TUCKER, New Hampshire Union Leader

You might not have a lot to take to the bank these days, but in college football, there's plenty you can bank on:

With six unbeatens occupying the top six spots in the BCS standings heading into Week 12 -- and only two matched up before the bowl season -- BCS bashers will be coming out of the woodwork en masse.

The playoff debate will rage anew.

Watch: Palin still isn't ready for political prime time

By ANN McFEATTERS, Scripps Howard News Service

WASHINGTON - "Don't you say anything bad about Sarah Palin," admonished one of my sisters. "We love her. Be nice to her."

"What is this infatuation about Sarah Palin all about?!" said another sibling. "I can't understand it. She has no real solutions. All she does is criticize and look hot."

In California, executive glass ceiling still not cracked by women

By MARK GLOVER, Sacramento Bee

Women are making "no progress" cracking the executive glass ceiling in California, according to a just-released study by the University of California, Davis.

The fifth annual "California Women Business Leaders" study concludes that progress for women at the 400 largest public companies headquartered in the state is little improved since the first survey in 2005.

Two Fla. boys made up story of child abduction, police say

By WILL GREENLEE, Scripps Howard News Service

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - A reported child abduction that turned out to be a hoax this week apparently started with two young boys mimicking the plot of a crime-related television program and ended with misdemeanor charges, a police spokesman said.

Ambrose: The anti-Palin bias

By JAY AMBROSE, Scripps Howard News Service

Here's what you do if you want an immediate demonstration of media bias in political coverage and to see trap doors open on the heads of leftists throughout the land as little birds step out singing, "Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo." You speak the name of Sarah Palin and let it be known she's traveling about the land saying stuff.

By JIM DOWNING, Sacramento Bee

U.S. rice farmers bet on higher prices

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- As flooded rice fields the length of the Sacramento Valley turn emerald, farmers who watched in disbelief this spring as prices broke record after record now face a stomach-churning decision:Sell? Or hold?

Shipping rates up as U.S. exports increase

As the weak dollar makes the fruits of American farms ever more attractive to overseas buyers, big exporters like California's Blue Diamond Growers are finding it tougher to get their products to far-off customers.

Climate control contractor leans toward green

Green tech doesn't have to be new tech. And executives at Sacramento's 61-year-old Beutler Corp. are hoping that insight will lead the huge climate-control contractor out of the wreckage of the real-estate collapse.

Bad economy could be sweet for California wines

As the economy sputters, American drinkers are moderating their taste for fine wine -- but not by much.And with a weak dollar making imports more expensive and consumers hunting for lower prices, California's Central Valley wine industry could be poised to benefit.

Dead Wrong

A seven-month investigation into federal mortality records reveals hundreds of thousands of death certificates filed every year in the United States are wrong, meaning we don't really know what's killing Americans. A first-of-its-kind study also found that younger, well-educated and wealthy people are more likely to be autopsied when they die. More men than women are autopsied. And blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans are more likely to be autopsied than whites.

Autopsy rates differ by race, age, sex, education

Cause of death investigations often dead wrong

Accurate death certificates challenged by poor training

Poll: Doubts persist over accuracy of death certificates

Survey results among different groups

Death poll findings, by questions

What to do if you distrust the death diagnosis

Where to find death records

Deaths by heart disease by state

Editorial: We don't know what's really killing Americans

Editorial: Water puts moon in a new light

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Editorial: 9/11 planners to return to NYC -- for trial

3 comments

Market decides if you set the right price for a house

3 comments

Editorial: But go ahead and make plans for next week anyway

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Erbe: Stupak-Pitts shoves women to back of bus

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Autos: Lincoln's flagship these days is the MKS sedan

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Editorial: Cracking down on free speech in name of religion

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Sugar cookies with a twist

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China equates Tibetan traditions with U.S. slavery

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House bill addresses shortages of primary doctors

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Recycled Radiation

Thousands of everyday products and materials containing radioactively tainted metals are surfacing across the United States and around the world. But because of haphazard screening, an absence of oversight, and substantial disincentives for businesses to report contamination, no one knows how many tainted goods are in circulation.

Recycled radioactive metal contaminates consumer products

NRC wants to tighten oversight of often-lost radioactive devices

Same batch of radioactive metal from Mexico enters Calif. for 25 years

Radioactive cheese grater case shows lack of oversight

36 states have nowhere to dump low-level radioactive material

Radioactive mesh from China used to make 30,000 filters in Florida

Authorities scrambled to corral radioactive La-Z-Boy recliners

Only U.S. effort to collect radioactive material has 9,000-object backlog

Mandatory screening, reporting needed to stop recycling radiation

Radioactive materials surface in Tennessee scrap yards

Texas has highest number of radioactive metal incidents

Editorial: The hidden radiation around us

Scripps Howard News Service response to comments from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on SHNS' "Recycled Radiation"

The Doctor is Out

A special report by Scripps Howard News Service finds as many as one in five Americans does not have a family doctor. And this translates directly to higher rates of illness and death and higher costs.

Docs: In ERs, more sore throats than cardiac arrests

Interactive database showing U.S. doctors by county

Blog Information Profile for scrippsnews

Latest Stories

By JIM DOWNING, Sacramento Bee

U.S. rice farmers bet on higher prices

Shipping rates up as U.S. exports increase

Climate control contractor leans toward green

Bad economy could be sweet for California wines

Dead Wrong

Recycled Radiation

The Doctor is Out

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