More on WVU's rout of Buckeyes

NEW Year's greetings, while hoping you'll be as "bowled" over asI am today (while realizing that when I started college, there wereonly eight bowl games):

Before getting to football, there's a mostly overlooked - andvery impressive - fact from last Saturday's West Virginia basketballthrottling of nationally ranked Ohio State.

WVU's 76-48 triumph provided the largest margin of victory forany non-conference visitor to Columbus in history. This is theBuckeyes' 110th season of men's basketball. They've played in 10Final Fours.

Only three teams have won at OSU by more than WVU's 28-pointmargin, all Big Ten foes - Indiana by 35 and 30, in 1928 and …

Dow Falls Another 200, Gains Most Back

NEW YORK - Wall Street tried to stage a comeback Thursday, with the Dow Jones industrials erasing much of an earlier 209-point drop after a stronger-than-expected reading of the Institute for Supply Management's assessment of manufacturing activity in February. In the first hour of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 80.59, or 0.66 percent, at 12,188.04.

Broader stock indicators also fell. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 8.43, or 0.60 percent, at 1,398.39, and the Nasdaq composite index was down 22.11, or 0.92 percent, at 2,394.04.

Investors showed their relief about manufacturing by buying some of the stocks that were pummeled in Tuesday's …

Reality TV star Jade Goody dies after cancer fight

Jade Goody's family asks for "privacy at last" after the death at 27 of the brash former dental assistant who turned her tumultuous life and struggle with cervical cancer into a one-woman reality show.

Mocked as a slob, then celebrated as an everywoman, Goody lived one of the world's most public lives, with cameras capturing everything from her racial slurs to her cancer diagnosis and chemotherapy. She died on Sunday.

Goody gained fame in 2002 at age 21 when she joined the British version of the reality television show "Big Brother," in which contestants live together for weeks and are constantly filmed. She became a highly divisive star …

Bureaucrats need dose of reality

We may no longer live in an era in which doctors make house callsand become friends of the family a la Marcus Welby. But it's stillreasonable to expect them to dedicate themselves to putting our bestinterests first, and that includes being candid with us in assessingour well-being and making recommendations for improving it.

Well, tell that to Dr. Terry Bennett of New Hampshire. After hetold one of his obese patients -- as he makes a point of telling allof them at a time when obesity is becoming a national epidemic --that their excessive weight was life-threatening and something theyshould work to get rid of, the patient filed a …

South Shore LL World Series set

It will be the Yankees battling the Cardinals in the first-ever South Shore Little League World Series.

The first game of the best-of-five series is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. at Russell Square Park, 3045 E. 83rd St.

The Yankees are the American Conference champs. They reached the World Series with a two-game sweep of the top-seeded Red Sox. The Cardinals defeated the Phillies two games to one for the National Conference title.

"This is our very first World Series, and we're really looking forward to it," said South Shore Little League president Daniel Anderson. "This has been an excellent second season for our organization, and we are looking forward to an …

Charlize Theron accepts Harvard's Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year award

Before Charlize Theron could pick up her Woman of the Year award, she had to prove she was worthy.

That meant dancing to disco music, striking modeling poses and wooing someone wearing an elephant suit and a pink sparkly bra _ all to delight of the cast members of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals at Harvard University, the nation's oldest undergraduate drama troupe. The South Africa-born actress' efforts landed her a gold-colored pudding pot.

"I hope you all know I'm a high school dropout. I just thought I'd be clean with you guys," Theron said Thursday.

Actor Christopher Walken is to receive the Hasty Pudding Man of the Year Award on Feb. …

DUI charge upgraded in 2 deaths

A Far South Side woman has been charged with felony driving under the influence after a car crash that claimed the lives of a mother and son last winter.

Lavashia Penn, 36, and son Damari McCaster, 13, had just attended the funeral of Damari's paternal grandmother when they were killed in the Roseland accident on Nov. 19, Penn's father said Wednesday.

Nancy Spencer was behind the wheel of the 1997 Oldsmobile Achieva — and Penn and McCaster were in the back seat — when the crash happened at 544 W. 111th St., police said. Spencer drove past a stop sign at Wallace at a high rate of speed without stopping, police said. The car then went around another vehicle and into the …