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MINERAL POINT, Wis. -- Cutting the cheese isn't often considered a good thing, but to Tony Hook, it's the culmination of two decades of hard work. On Monday, Hook, the co-owner of Hook's Cheese Company in Mineral Point, cut up a 40-pound block of the company's 20-year aged white cheddar as dozens of community members watched the process unfold. Each batch of cheddar Hook's produces begins with the same recipe, Hook explained, but factors like the feed animals eat and weather conditions can lead to differences in the milk used. "We try to test every vat we make as we...

Former “Saturday Night Live” cast member Jan Hooks died Thursday, a rep confirmed to TheWrap. She was 57. Hooks died in New York City during the morning. She was suffering from an undisclosed serious illness, according to reports.

The Department of Homeland Security is dismantling a next-generation biological attack warning system in New York City subways because of technical problems, U.S. officials said. Robert Hooks, a deputy assistant secretary, said the department no longer believes it is necessary to expand the pilot program, as he told Congress in July, because of resource and technology limits. Hooks said a long-planned alternative sensor system, set for initial deployment late next year, also will not be available nationwide until 2012, to allow for more testing. The deactivation of the pilot program in late March marks a setback in U.S. efforts to...

TWO Cornish fisherman came back with a bigger catch than usual, after reportedly hooking a live deer which had fallen into the sea. Chris Earl and Tony Allsopp were checking lobster pots when they spotted the animal swimming about 1km off the English coast. They threw a line around the beast and hauled it on board by its antlers.

10. “bell hooks” Born Gloria Watkins, spells new name in lower case. Has written, “It is difficult not to hear in standard English always the sound of slaughter and conquest” and “I am writing this essay sitting beside an anonymous white male that I long to murder.” hooks is a distinguished professor of English at City College in New York. 9. Amiri Baraka Born Everett Leroy Jones in 1934, adopted current name after converting to Islam in 1968. Former poet laureate of New Jersey. Has written: “… the white woman understands that only in the rape sequence [by a black...

HAMZA GETS £30,000 NURSE.. TO WIPE HIS BUM Jail aid as cleric gets new hooks on NHS By Nathan Yates TERROR suspect Abu Hamza has been given new hooks on the NHS - and a £30,000-a-year nurse to wipe his backside in jail. The Muslim extremist, who has no hands, was fitted with special £5,000 replacement hooks because it was feared his original metal ones could be used as weapons. He is unable to clean himself as he could do himself an injury. So prison officials have hired a male nurse named Harry to perform the task. A prison source...

ALTON, Ill. - It sounds like the sort of tale Mark Twain might have cooked up: A man fishing in the Mississippi River hauls in a blue catfish roughly the size of a sixth-grader. But this is no fish story. Early Sunday, Tim Pruitt caught a 124-pound blue catfish. To get a sense of just how big that is, the state record holder was a mere 85 pounds and the world record holder tipped the scales at 121 pounds, 8 ounces. Now, Pruitt, whose fish has already been weighed in the presence of a conservation police officer and measured by...

MLK papers are for sale; value put at $30 million By Bartholomew Sullivan sullivan@gomemphis.com August 27, 2003 A New York auction house put the private papers of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on display Tuesday and announced they'll be sold later this year. But when sold they should be carefully preserved and made available to the public, several civil rights advocates said. The material, owned by the King estate, has never been made public. Reacting to news the papers are to be sold by the Sotheby's auction house this fall, some expressed dismay but all said they are a national...

Ga. Lawmakers Scrap Dixie Cross on Flag By KRISTEN WYATT Associated Press Writer ATLANTA (AP) -- Georgia lawmakers have voted to scrap the Dixie cross from the state's flag, potentially heading off an economic boycott by civil rights groups outraged by the Confederate emblem. With some black lawmakers cheering and others weeping, the Legislature voted Friday to replace the current flag with a new design, inspired by a Confederate national flag but lacking the well-known cross of stars. "This gives the people a flag based on history, but yet looking to the future," said Democratic Sen. George Hooks, a white...