262-ScienceDaily (May 16, 2012) ? Today's mega forest fires of the southwestern U.S. are truly unusual and exceptional in the long-term record, suggests a new study that examined hundreds of years of ancient tree ring and fire data from two distinct climate periods.

471-Streams of gray smoke from burning sage and cedar swirled into the air, and an American Indian intertribal honor chant rose above the chirp of birds at Pioneer Springs Park in Independence. Cupping an abalone shell filled with the burning embers, Millicent Pepion _ part Blackfeet, part Navajo _ waved smoke around her body from head to toe and then did the same for her 13 fellow travelers. Together they blessed the nameless Potawatomi Indian who is buried in the park.

480-Celtra Named as Finalist in 2012 American Business Awards(SM) ");//]]-- 10th Annual Stevie(R) Awards Will Be Presented on June 18 in New York City and September 17 in San Francisco Celtra Inc., the industry leader for rich media advertising and analytics across mobile devices, today announced it was named a Finalist in the Most Innovative Tech Company of the Year - Up to 100 Employees category in The 2012 American Business Awards, the nation's premier business awards program.

429-MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Whatever they may have thought of his politics, anyone lucky enough to have conversed with author Carlos Fuentes couldn't help but be taken by his patrician good looks and his love affair with language. I was struck by this the first time I met Fuentes at his Mexico City home in 1989 following the publication of "Christopher Unborn," his Orwellian story of the "Makesicko Seedy" capital narrated by a fetus.

484-Organizers of the Taste of Glen Ellyn are inviting locals and others alike to kick off the weekend early in the village?s downtown and to plan for an extra day of fun. The annual event is expanding to four days this year, running Thursday through Sunday, May 17 to 20. For the past two years, the event has been held Thursday through Saturday. Advertisement If you go What: Taste of Glen Ellyn When: 5 to 10 p.m. Thursday; 5 to 11 p.m. Friday; noon to 11 p.m. Saturday; noon to 7 p.m.

502-Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming, the ride culminates in Lame Deer, Montana on July 28, 2012 at the 11th gathering of the Grandmothers Council.   At sacrifice sites along the route, Earth skill educators will share the lost wisdom of caring for the earth through storytelling, land stewardship and wilderness survival training for families.  They will offer hands-on teachings of traditional skills such as fire making, shelter building, animal tracking, flint knapping, and more.

478-CHICAGO, May 16, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, YMCA of the USA (Y-USA) announces the election of Sharon L. Allen to chair of the nonprofit's national board of directors. Allen, a well-known business leader from her long-standing career at Deloitte LLP, will provide leadership to the 27-member board, which sets the strategic direction and policies to guide the Y's work in strengthening communities through youth development, healthy living and social responsibility.

428-MEXICO CITY (AP) - Whatever they may have thought of his politics, anyone lucky enough to have conversed with author Carlos Fuentes couldn't help but be taken by his patrician good looks and his love affair with language. I was struck by this the first time I met Fuentes at his Mexico City home in 1989 following the publication of "Christopher Unborn," his Orwellian story of the "Makesicko Seedy" capital narrated by a fetus.

451-k.d. lang liveCanadian country and rock star k.d. lang teams up with the Siss Boom Bang Band at the Genesee Theatre, 203 N. Genesee St., Waukegan. $36-$76. (847) 782-2366 or geneseetheatre.com. 8 p.m. Friday, May 18 Those summer nightsDowntown Downers Grove hosts its 20th annual Summer Nights Classic Car Show. All classic cars are welcome on Main Street, from Maple to Franklin, and the featured cars (pre-1980) will be on display on Curtiss Street.

464-It was May 10, 1970, in Se San, Cambodia. Spc. Leslie H. Sabo Jr. and his platoon were ambushed by a large enemy force. The 22-year-old riflemen from Ellwood City, Pa., charged the enemy position, killing several soldiers, and then attacked an enemy flanking force, drawing fire away from his comrades. As the enemy retreated, a grenade landed near Sabo and a wounded American soldier. Sabo picked it up and threw it, while shielding his comrade with his own body.

315-WASHINGTON (AP) - The House is voting on a Republican-written bill to renew the Violence Against Women Act, but the White House has threatened to veto it. On the eve of Wednesday's vote, the White House said the GOP-written bill didn't go far enough to protect battered illegal immigrants, Native Americans or gays.

170-ScienceDaily (May 15, 2012) ? Attention, college students cramming between midterms and finals: Binging on soda and sweets for as little as six weeks may make you stupid.

452-By ADAM ENTOUS And JOE PARKINSON Four months after the Turkish military, working with U.S. Intelligence, bombed a civilian convoy incorrectly identified as Kurdish militants, survivors and relatives are demanding answers. Reporting and video by WSJ's Joe Parkinson in Uludere, Turkey. ULUDERE, Turkey-After winding along a narrow mountain ridge, a caravan of 38 men and mules paused on the Turkish-Iraqi border. Then they heard the propellers overhead.

470-Streams of gray smoke from burning sage and cedar swirled into the air, and an American Indian intertribal honor chant rose above the chirp of birds at Pioneer Springs Park in Independence.Cupping an abalone shell filled with the burning embers, Millicent Pipion - part Blackfeet, part Navajo - waved smoke around her body from head to toe and then did the same for her 13 fellow travelers. Together they blessed the nameless Potawatomi Indian who is buried in the park.

320-2bb BY JENNIFER LEVITZ A 1997 Fordham Law Review article described Democratic Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren as Harvard Law School's "first woman of color," saying in footnotes that the information was based on a 1996 telephone interview with a Harvard spokesman. The spokesman cited, Michael Chmura, also described Ms.

447-Consider the first few days of this year's Amgen Tour of California an important audition for Team Exergy cyclist Fred Rodriguez. A Berkeley resident who grew up in Los Angeles, Rodriguez has been one of the best known sprinters in American cycling since he arrived on the scene in the late 1990s. Earning the nickname "Fast Freddie," Rodriguez has served as both a lead-out man and featured sprinter, and won a stage at the Giro d'Italia in 2004.

450-By SCOTT CACCIOLA Olympian Abdi Abdirahman arrived in New York ahead of a race last week with every intention of going for a 50-minute training run. Then his plans changed. "I just wanted to eat, lie in bed and watch basketball," said Abdirahman, an American long-distance runner. "So that's what I did." Distance runners tend to be Type A personalities. They weigh their food, chart their mileage and obsess over everything from sleep to stretching.

500-Paradise, Mount Rainier National Park -- For all its breathtaking beauty, Mount Rainier is a massive creature, a noisy, moving, steaming mass of rock, ice and tectonic energy, and if you want to know it as one who has climbed it, the mountain will take a little piece of you. You will leave the mountain sore from your toes to your temples, you will feel drained, your feet likely will be blistered and your lungs may feel congested from labored breathing of the thin air at more than 2.7 miles high.