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Former standout tight end Dan Ross, who spent most of his seven NFL seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals and still shares the record for most receptions in a Super Bowl, died Tuesday at age 49. His death, first reported by the Boston Herald on Wednesday morning, was confirmed by family members and city officials in his hometown of Atkinson, N.H. Ross reportedly collapsed at his home after returning from an evening jog. He was transported to Merrimack Valley Hospital in Haverhill, Mass., where he was pronounced dead. Officials have not yet determined a cause of death. Ross was the Bengals'...

2006 ABC Saturday Night College Football schedule • Sept. 2, 8 p.m. ET: Notre Dame at Georgia Tech • Sept. 9, 8 p.m. ET: Ohio State at Texas • Sept. 16, 8 p.m. ET: Nebraska at USC • Sept. 23, 8 p.m. ET: Notre Dame at Michigan State; USC at Arizona • Sept. 30, 8 p.m. ET: Ohio State at Iowa or Michigan at Minnesota* • Oct. 7, 8 p.m. ET: Oregon at California; ACC, Big 12 or BIG EAST (12-day selection) • Oct. 14, 8 p.m. ET: Michigan at Penn State; Arizona State at USC • Nov. 4, 8...

April 28, 2006 -- The next time you look in the mirror and wonder, "Is it just me, or am I just so much better looking than I was yesterday?" -- don't worry. It is just you, but you're not alone. A new study shows people may actually perceive themselves as growing more attractive over time. Researchers found that a group of female undergraduate students perceived themselves as more attractive than they were a few months ago, while another group believed they'd be even more attractive in five years' time. Good Looks Get Better With Age The results of the...

ALBEMARLE - "American Idol" finalist Kellie Pickler got a hometown welcome Saturday, one full of tearful twists and an anthem to independence. Pickler rode in a red 1968 Ford Mustang during a 20-minute parade, followed by speeches on a stage erected in the town center where thousands wore pink, purple, green and yellow Pickler T-shirts. "It looks like a bag of Skittles poured on Albemarle," said Pickler, 19. "I couldn't have come from a better hometown." Sharing the stage were her two grandfathers, Clyde Pickler and Ken Morton. Also there were her father, Clyde "Bo" Pickler Jr., and her half-brother,...

Full-blown ECW revival in works April 30, 2006 BY BLACKJACK BROWN The announcement fans of ECW have awaited for years is just weeks away, as WWE plans to bring back ECW full-time. WWE will use the June 11 ECW "One Night Stand II'' pay-per-view as the platform to announce the re-launch. Some insiders think the decision will be made sometime in the next two weeks either to give ECW a late-night cable time slot or make it an Internet-only promotion and run house shows all over the country. Paul Heyman and Tommy Dreamer have been put in charge and are...

War Stories Fox News Sunday U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) Rep. Peter King (R., N.Y.) Immigration Nation Meet the Press Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.) Sen. Mel Martinez (D., Fla.) Rep. Henry Bonilla (R., Tex.) Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R., Ariz.) Rep. Luis Guiterrez (D., Ill) Immigration Nation II Face the Nation Rep. Tom Tancredo (R., Col.) Rep. Xavier Becerra (D., Calif.) GM chair Richard Wagoner The New Majority This Week House Majority Leader John Boehner Ex-Ambassador Joe Wilson ’Zona to Zinni to Zalmay Late Edition Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) Retired Gen. Anthony Zinni...

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- Maria Sharapova blew a big lead, drew boos for taking a bathroom break and won only when opponent Tatiana Golovin was forced to retire in tears because of an ankle injury. The hollow victory Thursday night earned Sharapova a berth in the final at the Nasdaq-100 Open. Sharapova failed to convert four match points in the second set and played for another 75 minutes before Golovin twisted her left ankle and fell chasing a shot in the corner. A trainer taped Golovin's ankle. The French teenager played one more point, hitting a return wide, then called...

The slogan of Lynchburg, Va., is engraved on the tile floor of its modest airport: "The most interesting spot in the state." This was the assessment of an early resident of Lynchburg, Thomas Jefferson, who also suggested that someday Lynchburg would be a great metropolis. Jefferson, right about so much, was wrong about this. Today Lynchburg is a sleepy little town of 64,000 on the banks of the polluted James River. Its municipal Web site lists just a few "Famous Products," chief among them the "disposable small-volume enema" and "the first disposable douche." The Web site is discreetly silent about...

Geoffrion passes away Habs' legend dies of stomach cancer By BILL BEACON CP) - Bernard (Boom Boom) Geoffrion said he invented the slapshot as a youngster, swiping at pucks on a rink behind a church near his home in Montreal. Others have also claimed the invention, but there is no question that Geoffrion was the player who popularized the shot that would give him his nickname. Geoffrion died in an Atlanta hospital on Saturday of stomach cancer. He was 75. The Montreal native passed away on the day his No. 5 jersey was to be retired by the Montreal Canadiens...

Bonds was a Brave for a day New Schuerholz book contains plenty of insider tidbits By DAVID O'BRIEN The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 03/09/06 St. Petersburg, Fla. — Barry Bonds was a Brave for one night in 1992, Tom Glavine was ready to back out of a free-agent deal with the Mets and stay with the Braves in 2002 and Deion Sanders only used the Braves to demonstrate his athletic prowess. Those are among the revelations in a surprisingly candid book by Braves general manager John Schuerholz. "Built to Win" is due to arrive in stores next week. "It's not...

Monday, February 20: • Author and commentator Ann Coulter on Usama bin Laden's latest warning and more cartoon protests

This sermon was preached yesterday by the Rev. Terry Specht at St. Leo the Great Catholic Church. ....Sometime in the 1950s, Christians in America lost their nerve. Gradually a consensus developed that we needed a softer, gentler Christianity. Somehow, we needed to take the edge off the words of this man, Jesus. We thought that if we just repackaged Him without the demands of the Gospel; if we stripped the cross from Christianity, then maybe more people would join the church.

Congrats to Michael Reagan with not putting up with Alan Colmes and his usual crap. Tonight Michael Reagan and a dem strategist Michael Brown were on Hannity and Colmes to discuss the Coretta Scott King memorial service. The service got political when "rev." joseph Lowery did with WMD tirade and the worst president of all time Jimmah Carter tried to make wire-tapping an issue.

The implosion of the Democratic Party. Plus Tom Shales's snobbery and a tribute to Wendy Wasserstein. Thursday, February 2, 2006 12:01 a.m. The president's State of the Union Address will be little noted and not long remembered. There was a sense that he was talking at, not to, the country. He asserted more than he persuaded, and he chose to redeclare his beliefs rather than argue for them in any depth. If you believe, as he does, that the No. 1 priority for the American government at this point in history is to lead an international movement for political democracy,...

Q&A / HERB LUSK II: first prayer Displays of faith on football field started 3 decades ago, when Herb Lusk II kneeled Michelle Hiskey - Staff Saturday, February 4, 2006 At Sunday's Super Bowl, as in most NFL games, fans will see a Seattle Seahawk or Pittsburgh Steeler point to the sky, make the sign of the cross or demonstrate his faith in some way. It's so commonplace today that it seems to be a part of the game. Signs of faith on the field, however, haven't been with us for that long. NFL Films, the sport's visual historians, pinpoint...

THe Department of Foreign Affairs was put on notice by the UN and the Canadian government six years ago that the wheat exporter AWB was accused of making illicit payments to Saddam Hussein's regime but one of the department's most senior officers failed to detect the scandal. Documents released by the Cole inquiry into the UN oil-for-food scandal yesterday show that Bronte Moules, now an assistant secretary in the department, was told by the UN in early 2000 of a complaint by the Canadian government that AWB was paying trucking fees to the Iraqi regime in violation of the UN...

CALLER: I'd like to know what your position is on gay marriage. R.H. SCHULLER: I am addicted to excellence, totally committed to excellence. That's where I'm coming from. It's a different position on this and any time there's a controversy, choose the interpretation that is more excellent.

Pamela Anderson Takes Aim at KFC By ROGER ALFORD Associated Press Writer FRANKFORT, Ky. — Pamela Anderson is leading a charge to remove a bust of KFC founder Colonel Harland Sanders from the state Capitol. The actress called the Kentucky native's likeness "a monument to cruelty" to chickens in a statement issued by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the animal rights group. The statement did little to ruffle feathers in Gov. Ernie Fletcher's office. "Colonel Sanders was one of Kentucky's most distinguished citizens, a great entrepreneur and a fine charitable man of faith, and he certainly has a...

DETROIT -- No up-or-down vote necessary: Everyone from persons of interest to first-time callers will agree that 2005 offered more than its share of irritating words and phrases. Lake Superior State University on Saturday released its 2006 "List of Words and Phrases Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness." But please, don't call it "breaking news."

"THE UGLINESS OF CHRISTMAS" 1 Timothy 1:15 For many years now here at Grace Church, it's been my challenge and joy to preach Christmas messages. In fact, some years I've preached two or three Christmas messages and so there have many different ways that we have looked at the birth of Christ. This year for whatever purposes in the mind and heart of God, I have felt strongly the need to preach on what I have chosen to call "The Ugliness of Christmas." I don't intend by that to be negative in total. I don't intend in that to depreciate...