CYBER NOTESSMALLER TOWNS GETTING MUNICIPAL WI-FI BEFORE BIGCITIES WIRED

To Rosetta Stone software read the headlines,you'd think the dream of free, citywide wireless was deadcoast to coast. One after another, big municipal Wi-Fiprojects - San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta - have hit theskids. But check out the rest of the map: Dozens oflower-profile locales are launching government-sponsorednetworks. Most are smaller cities and counties, wherebureaucracies are less onerous and costs are lower.(Philadelphia, the sixth-largest US city, is the biggesturban area to get a network running, with about 100 squaremiles of coverage.)Santa Monica, California: The0.21-square-mile network in this seaside LA town servesmainly downtown locations and the area's parks, includingthe oft-filmed and picturesque Palisades Park, high on abluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.St. Cloud, Florida:Touted as having one of the best free municipal wirelesssystems in the country, this community of 54,000 claims thatnearly 80 percent of its citizens use the service.Chaska,Minnesota: In 2004, this Twin Cities suburb rolled out oneof the earliest municipal Wi-Fi networks in the US. The citycharges $17 per month for downstream speeds of 250 Kbps to1.2 Mbps. Alas, the network still doesn't cover every squareinch of town.Rio Rancho, New Mexico: This city north ofAlbuquerque pulled the plug on its Wi-Fi network late lastyear after a dispute with its wireless ISP,Azulstar.HEALTH & SCIENCE STUDY OF STUDIES FIND SOME VITAMINSUPPLEMENTS MAY SHORTEN LIFESCHOOLS & THEYOUNG YOUTH GETTING A SAY AT FAMILYCOURT CITY LIMITS A movement to includemore young people in their own Family Court hearings hasslowly but surely been gaining momentum over the pastseveral years. The question now, advocates and thoseinvolved in the Family Court system say, is not whether itis a good idea to encourage children to participate in theirhearings - particularly when the hearings focus on thechild's long-term, permanent living situation - but how tomake it happen more often.The Rosetta Stone Spain Spanish Family Court system in NewYork City, with one court building for each borough,addresses cases of abuse and neglect, adoption, custody andvisitation, juvenile delinquency and other matters involvingchildren and families. . .The movement to encourage morechildren and youth participation in Family Court began topick up steam several years ago. While children would attendhearings from time to time, advocates say it was achallenging feat to pull off and there was no clear mandateto include children in hearings. . .In June of last year,advocates began hearing from children themselves through thecitywide Youth Justice Board, a panel of foster children andformer foster children under the aegis of the public-privateCenter for Court Innovation. . . One of the findings of theYJB report was that youth feel like their voice is missingfrom their cases. "Youth want their needs and opinions to beheard, but they don't always understand how to make thathappen. ... The perception from the youth's point of view isthat many adults are talking about them, but not many aretalking to them." According to the report, some young peoplehave been involved in court proceedings and had a positiveexperience. One such person was quoted as saying, "They [thepeople in the courtroom] see your face, they have moreunderstanding. They felt the emotion. I think it goesquicker when they see your face." Another youth said, "Ispoke to the judge. I felt like it was all about me - itfelt good.". . .One method of encouraging youth andchildren to participate in court has been to acclimate themto the court system through an annual "Teen Day, Gendellsaid, when the calendar is cleared for youth participationall day and teenagers get taken Rosetta Stone English to lunch and meet withjudges, judge surrogates called "referees," and lawguardians, who are the lawyers appointed to representchildren.RECOVERED HISTORY THE NAZIROOTS OF THE OLYMPIC TORCH INDEPENDENT, UK - There is atwo-word answer to those who think the Olympic torch is asymbol of harmony between nations that should be kept apartfrom politics xAC, Adolf Hitler. The ceremony played out onthe streets of Paris did not originate in ancient Greece,nor even in the 19th century, when the Olympic movement wasrevived.