Bad News

NEW YORK (AP) - Wall Street had a mild rebound after three straight losing sessions Thursday, with investors sending stocks mostly higher despite a sharp rise in unemployment claims and mixed holiday retail sales. Only the Nasdaq composite index posted a small loss. Although stocks fluctuated, Wall Street greeted the Labor Department's weekly first-time jobless claims report with surprising calm. Jobless claims rose to 364,000 last week, up from 321,000 the week before - the sharpest rise in nearly three years.

There's good news and bad news for victims of crime in Pennsylvania this week. The good news: Starting this summer, witnesses or victims of crime who fear the day when the person they testified against will be out of jail can now sign up to be notified by phone call. The bad news: The service, at least for now, won't be available in Franklin and Fulton counties. The service is provided through Appriss Inc., a Louisville, Ky., company courtesy of a $1.5 million federal grant.

"Funny by accident. "  That's a phrase you'll see if you read enough reviews of bad comedies. As in, "With this much talent in the cast, you'd think that someone would be funny by accident. " You always hear it as a hypothetical, don't you? You don't read many reviews that actually say a comedy is "funny by accident. " Maybe somebody will say that a cheesy sci-fi or horror movie is "funny by accident," but not a comedy.  After all, if a comedy is funny, you assume it was meant to be funny.  "The Watch" is a comedy that I believe is "funny by accident.

By MARLO BARNHART Staff Writer There was some good news and some bad news Wednesday in the case of a 14-year-old boy who admitted touching the breast of a female classmate last May at Smithsburg Middle School. A marked improvement in the boy's behavior and grades were reported to Washington County Juvenile Judge John H. McDowell for the first few weeks of his 9th grade year at Smithsburg High School. But there was a disturbing note that new charges have been filed against him - charges of second-degree assault and false imprisonment and a trespass incident at his former school.

Opening this week "Bad News Bears" (PG-13) - Billy Bob Thornton plays a washed-up baseball star enlisted to turn a team of misfits into Little League champs. He and his inept players have an unexpected and remarkable affect on one another. Also starring Greg Kinnear, Marcia Gay Harden, Timmy Deters and Sammi Kane Kraft. "The Island" (PG-13) - Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson learn they are clones bred only for their organs. They escape to avoid being "harvested," but pursued by the forces of the institute that once housed them, they race for their lives to literally meet their makers.

Rail line extension still unclear HANCOCK (AP) - Residents of Hancock and neighboring Morgan County, W.Va., got good news and bad news at a meeting with Maryland officials about a proposed extension of MARC commuter rail service to the area. Representatives of Sen. Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., and Rep. Bob Wise., D-W.Va., expressed support for the project but track owner CSX Corp. would have to be persuaded to allow more passenger traffic, Morgan County Commission Chairman Philip Maggio said Friday.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. -- A 52-year-old man was taken to Chambersburg Hospital Monday for a mental health evaluation after barricading himself in a Limestone Drive home for almost six hours, Pennsylvania State Police said. The man received bad news and threatened to harm himself at 2 p.m., state police troopers told The Herald-Mail. Police were told the man had a firearm and a cross bow. They closed Limestone Drive, Shady Side Drive and Stanley Avenue Extended with the help of area fire police.

Mayor leads Council in moment of silence Hagerstown Mayor William M. Breichner on Tuesday led the Hagerstown City Council in a moment of silence in memory of the seven astronauts killed in Saturday's space shuttle Columbia disaster. Two firms team up to revitalize downtown Two consulting firms will work together to help the City of Hagerstown in its attempts to revitalize downtown Hagerstown. During Tuesday's Hagerstown City Council work session, representatives of Wilmington, Del.-based-Market Knowledge and Washington, D.C.-based Tonya Inc. made presentations to the council about work they will do for the city.

Editor's note: This is the second in a monthly series about neighborhood grocery stores. In an era of the super-size supermarkets, Gordon Grocery is an anachronism. For starters, Gordon Grocery, known colloquially to patrons as Gordon's, looks like a general store in the middle of a residential block in Hagerstown's posh North End. Inside, the store is in a room wide enough to accommodate two aisles of dry and packaged goods, wine and beer, and a deli. The cashier's counter is at the store's front, middle seam.

Soviets had WMD, but we didn't attack them To the editor: For those who are puzzled by the continued close connection between Tony Blair and President Bush, even though their military venture in Iraq is in shambles, a recently published book will clarify the nature of the bond. Kevin Phillips in "American Theocracy" gives some vital facts which reveal the state of affairs regarding the quest for oil on the part of Great Britain and the United States. Phillips points out that both world powers were keenly aware that domestic oil supplies had peaked - the U.S. in 1970 and Great Britain in 1999 - and, absent future newly discovered reserves, they faced a crisis of supply.