Heads and tales: Cool standings 2
By Wade Kwon
Down from the mountain: The women’s two-man bobsled competition just finished. Did Birmingham’s Vonetta Flowers move up or down from Monday’s ninth-place rank? Did the United States team repeat as medalists? (No spoilers until the jump.) The third and fourth runs air between 7 and 10:30 tonight on NBC 13.
• Bobsled results, day 2 [NBC Olympics]
Birds of a feather: Is Alabama ready for a possible outbreak of bird flu? Wednesday will be a major step in preparing for pandemic, as Gov. Riley and Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt join area leaders for a half-day summit. On the agenda: “setting up a surveillance system, identifying ways to stop the spread of infection and building a health emergency response.” Although transmission from chickens to humans is rare, avian influenza has killed more than half of infected humans and could spread rapidly through all of us. Then, we’re all totally clucked.
• Flu-response summit set [Birmingham News]
Food fight: Our pal Cary writes about how the influx of upscale restaurant chains is pushing independent eateries to offer something different to retain employees. Special meals and involvement in daily decision-making are two tactics against the chains’ often higher salaries and bigger benefits packages. We’ll settle for a working intercom at the drive-through.
• A fine-dining dilemma [Birmingham Business Journal]
Also:
- Anti-violence campaign hawks new slogan, “Peace out, bitch!”
- Bank earns high marks in customer service, speedy layoffs
- Tuscaloosa promises to stop stealing water, cable from Birmingham
Olympics bobsledding results after the jump …
Bobsled results: Flowers and teammate Jean Prahm finished in sixth place with a combined time of 3:51.78, 1.80 seconds behind gold medalists Sandra Kiriasis and Anja Schneiderheinze of Germany. Shauna Rohbock and Valerie Fleming of the United States took the silver, and Gerda Weissensteiner and Jennifer Isacco of Italy took bronze. Flowers and Prahm finished 10th, third, fourth and seventh in the four runs.
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