Wildlife Viewfinder Guide: Special mammalian blend in ringtail With a distinctively banded tail that’s as long as its body, the ringtail is a cat-sized mammal that appears to have mixed parentage. Huge round eyes and large, rounded ears frame a foxlike face. Gray to tan fur, a ringed tail and five-toed feet like a raccoon, semiretractable claws like a cat and the ability to leap like a squirrel round out its best features. Bassariscus astutus  [full story]

SEATTLE - Ferry service between Clinton to Mukilteo in Washington state was suspended Friday after the ferryboat rammed into the dock. The Cathlamet hit the dock in Mukilteo at "an abnormal rate of speed," causing damage to both and at least one minor injury, The Seattle Times reported Friday. The Mukilteo terminal was immediately closed and the service was rerouted to Edmonds, Wash. The accident reportedly punctured the Cathlamet above the water line and pushed ... [full story]

The F.B.I. in Tucson Arizona was ordered by the Pentagon to start a federal investigation into the use of MK-Ultra by a masonic group of people involved with drug running in Mena Arkansas in 1998.As they investigated up until now the investigation has cost over sixty million dollars and is still ongoing. The investigation was joint with the N.S.A. and Department of Defense which they were using fighter jets to intercept the MK-Ultra being used. ... [full story]

You and your buddy are planning a ski trip to Switzerland with a side trip to Paris, where you have made reservations at The Ritz. He falls and breaks a leg carrying luggage to the car.   TRAVEL INSURANCE - If you buy travel insurance, you may well have avoided a second disaster, this one financial, when your trip plans unexpectedly fall apart. CNS Illustration by Eri Hashimoto. Your family decides to take a cruise instead of ... [full story]

Dear Mr. Berko: Please tell me about Sasol, which is a synthetic oil and gas producer in South Africa. Do synthetic diesel, airplane fuel and gas really work? Can we use it in the U.S.? Where did they get this process and how come we don't use it reduce the cost we have to pay? Is their process too expensive? And is it true that Sasol developed this process to make fuel for the Germans ... [full story]

Dear Mr. Berko: I have a proprietary stock market formula that uses various unit trusts to generate long-term gains and or income for my clients. I've only been in this business for five years but my record is very good. I purchase unit trusts with zero commission costs and specific stock market objectives to match the investment of my clients. Each account will own six to eight unit-trusts with maturities of at least 12 months. ... [full story]

Dear Mr. Berko: I need more income because I'm retired. So I asked my broker for the name of a good closed-end income fund and he said that one of the best he could recommend was the ING Prime Rate Trust that yields 7.3 percent and sells for $7.40 a share. I bought 1,300 shares (about $9,600) and got my first monthly dividend of $585 and I'm pleased. Do you think it would be a ... [full story]

Henry Aaron is adamant. Firm. As usual. He won't be in attendance when or if Barry Bonds breaks his career home run record. Not even if Bonds does it in Atlanta, which is where Aaron works. Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, on the other hand, is noncommittal. Not firm. As usual. Neither man should be there. It would be great if Bonds couldn't make it, either, but although the chase has slowed to a troll's pace, ... [full story]

CHULA VISTA, Calif. - The cheese sandwich has been a remarkably effective collections notice in Chula Vista's elementary schools. When schools give kids no lunch choice but cheese, parents pay what they owe. Lunch costs $1.50 a day, but the past-due bills aren't small change. Four years ago, Chula Vista parents had run up a lunch tab of $285,000. "It's a problem across the country," Dennis Doyle, Chula Vista's assistant superintendent, told an audience of ... [full story]

  Britain shocked by 1st US Wimbledon champ May Godfrey Sutton (1886-1975) became the first American woman to win the singles championship at Wimbledon when she beat British star and reigning two-time Wimbledon champion Dorothea Douglass 6-3, 6-4 in 1905. Her victory captured the imagination of the US press and shocked the very proper British audience. It was not Sutton’s powerful topspin forehand that the British and US public found so intriguing, though, it was her ... [full story]