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"I've always felt that the origin of Superman is the story of Moses -- the child sent on a ship to fulfill a destiny," said Singer, a producer on the upcoming X-Men: First Class. "And this was a story about Christ -- it's all about sacrifice: The world, I hear their cries. So what happens? He gets the knife in the side and later he falls to the earth in the shape of a crucifix. It was kind of nailing you on the head, but I enjoyed that, because I've always found the myth of Christ compelling and moving. So...

Andre Dawson, a five-tool player who won eight Gold Glove and four Silver Slugger Awards in a career spanning 21 seasons with the Montreal Expos, Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox and Florida Marlins, was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America in balloting verified by Ernst & Young. He will be inducted into the Hall July 25 at the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown, N.Y. Dawson was listed on 420 ballots (77.9%) to win election in his ninth year on the ballot. His election brings to 292 the number of elected members...

"I have always tried to be a faithful Catholic, Your Holiness," Ted Kennedy wrote to Pope Benedict XVI, in a letter dramatically read by Theodore Cardinal McCarrick at the senator's burial, "and though I have fallen short through human failings, I have never failed to believe and respect the fundamental teachings." But it's not Senator Abortion's 11th hour effort to transform himself into Senator Catholic that has the media up in arms. "Why couldn't the pope have replied in his own name?" Sam Donaldson incredulously asked on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. "I was disappointed." Time magazine found it noteworthy...

. . . During the recount Senator Coleman lost his narrow lead to Franken, coming out on the short end of a 225-vote margin. Senator Coleman has challenged the result of the recount in the election contest. The election-contest trial took place over seven weeks. The case is pending before the election-contest panel of three judges, but the result appears foreordained, based on rulings made to date by the panel. In all likelihood, the election-contest panel will declare Al Franken the winner, and Senator Coleman has already vowed to appeal the result to the Minnesota Supreme Court. What happened? The...

If one can achieve some emotional detachment from the stakes involved, the Coleman-Franken recount and election contest may provide entertainment value. The role reversals alone are a fertile source of comedy. Immediately following the election, trailing Senator Coleman by an incredibly narrow margin, Al Franken began the traditional Democratic "count every vote" drumbeat. Franken instituted litigation to accompany the drumbeat. Working through a maze including a trip to the Minnesota Supreme Court that led to the inclusion of 933 previously rejected absentee ballots with Senator Coleman's agreement, Franken emerged at the end of the recount with a 225-vote lead. Yet...

Yesterday the three-judge panel hearing the Coleman-Franken election contest denied Senator Coleman's request to reconsider their ruling this past Friday on the standard applicable to the 4,800 rejected absentee ballots raised by the Coleman campaign in the election contest. In their ruling the three-judge panel insisted on compliance with Minnesota's absentee ballot statute. The Coleman campaign complains that enforcing compliance with the absentee ballot statute creates inconsistencies in the treatment of absentee ballots. Included among the 933 rejected absentee ballots included in the recount, the Coleman campaign asserts, are 100 ballots that fail the test of statutory compliance. Senator Coleman's...

Rickey Henderson, baseball's all-time stolen-bases and runs-scored leader, and power-hitting outfielder Jim Rice have been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers' Association of America in balloting verified by Ernst & Young. They will be inducted into the Hall on July 26 at the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown, N.Y. Henderson and Rice will be honored along with former New York Yankees and Cleveland Indians second baseman Joe Gordon, who was elected last month by the Veterans Committee. The July 26 Induction Ceremony will also include the presentation of the Ford C. Frick Award for...

Q What corrections might (still) be made to the vote tallies? A Last week, staffers at the secretary of state's office reported the votes on 6,655 challenged ballots to the state canvassing board. These are ballots that one of the campaigns questioned as unclear or invalid. The campaigns withdrew many of these challenges, leaving the board with about 1,300 to judge. The board determined during the third week of December how to count those. Last weekend, staffers included those judgments along with the local elections officials' judgments on the other 5,200 in the recount total. Both campaigns said some errors...

Clicking on the link and then registering for the website will allow you to view and vote for yourself on ballots which have been challenged by either campaign.

As Minnesota's recount in the U.S. Senate race marches on, campaign operatives have focused on the color of the ballots being counted. Are the piles of recounted ballots from red counties, where Republican Sen. Norm Colman might be expected to pick up a few stray votes? Or blue counties, where DFL challenger Al Franken might have the advantage? But Minneapolis — the biggest, bluest pile of all — is turning that logic on its head. With nearly half of its ballots recounted, the city Franken calls home isn't doing the candidate any favors. And that could be dimming Franken's hopes...

On Shepherd Smith's show, Carl Cameron reported that the McCain campaign was highly critical of Gov. Sarah Palin, accusing her of:1) Not knowing Africa was a continent.2) Not prepping before the Couric interview.3) Getting emotional over criticism.4) Didn't know what countries were in NAFTA.5) Was prone to tantrums.Among other things.

Count this newspaper among the Minnesota voices that long for a lessening of partisan polarization and a return to constructive problem-solving in Washington. If demonization of the partisan opposition continues to be the political coin of this realm, effectiveness of American democracy will be diminished. Independent judgment, exercised on behalf of the best interests of the country and state, is what we hope to see from our U.S. senators. With that hope in mind, this newspaper recommends the reelection of Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman.. . . Coleman didn't begin his Senate service as an agent of bipartisanship. But that's...

NEW YORK -- Rich 'Goose' Gossage became only the fifth relief pitcher elected to the Hall of Fame, earning baseball's highest honor Tuesday on his ninth try on the ballot. Gossage appeared on 86 percent of the ballots. Former Boston Red Sox outfielder Jim Rice had 72.2 percent of the vote, just short of the 75 percent needed for enshrinement.

Grokster, the free music-swapping website that prompted a legal battle ending in the US Supreme Court, agreed to shut down its service under a settlement with the US music industry, industry officials said. Grokster will shut down its peer-to-peer (P2P) network that had been accused of massive copyright violations, prompting a lawsuit that ended with the highest US court ruling that it contributed to piracy, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). "This settlement brings to a close an incredibly significant chapter in the story of digital music," said Mitch Bainwol, chairman and chief executive of the RIAA....

Editorial: Confirm Roberts/'I am not an ideologue' . . . When asked about whether he considered himself "in the mold" of Scalia and Thomas, he replied, "I will be my own man" on the Supreme Court. "I depart from some views of original intent," he said, making clear that he takes a broad view of the Constitution as a document that the founders "intended to apply in a meaningful way down the ages." . . . It was clear throughout that all kinds of signals were being sent abroad in the land -- if principally by Roberts, also by every...

Sept. 19, 2005 issue - It's a standing joke among the president's top aides: who gets to deliver the bad news? Warm and hearty in public, Bush can be cold and snappish in private, and aides sometimes cringe before the displeasure of the president of the United States, or, as he is known in West Wing jargon, POTUS. The bad news on this early morning, Tuesday, Aug. 30, some 24 hours after Hurricane Katrina had ripped through New Orleans, was that the president would have to cut short his five-week vacation by a couple of days and return to Washington....

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court retirement watch is far from over. After Sandra Day O'Connor's surprise announcement last week, the attention is focused again on ailing Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and the prospect of simultaneous high court openings for the first time in 34 years. President Bush, who is traveling in Europe this week, plans to focus on a handful of prospective replacements for O'Connor over the next few weeks, an aide said Tuesday. That gives Rehnquist more time to ponder his future.. . .Two openings would give Bush an opportunity, albeit one with potential political pitfalls. "When he's...

The recipe called for 1/2 cc of testosterone cypionate every three days; one cc of testosterone enanthate per week; equipoise and winstrol v, 1/4 cc every three days, injected into the buttocks, one in one cheek, one in the other. It was the cocktail of a hardcore steroids user, and it is one of the "arrays," or steroid recipes, Mark McGwire used to become the biggest thing in baseball in the 1990s, sources have told the Daily News. Long before Jose Canseco claimed he injected McGwire in the behind in his tell-all autobiography "Juiced," the man known as Big Mac...

Resume of prospective Vikings owner dogged by questions Jay Weiner, Star Tribune In his official biography, distributed Monday by his Twin Cities public relations firm, Reggie Fowler declared that he played in the Little League World Series, implied that he earned a business administration and finance degree from the University of Wyoming and said that he played for the Cincinnati Bengals of the NFL and the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League. According to officials with all of the sports organizations and official records at the NFL, CFL and University of Wyoming, none of those claims is exactly true....

Law & Order finally got rid of the worst character to ever appear on the show, Assistant D.A. Serena Southerlyn, played by Elisabeth "Let's See If Can I Open My Eyes Any Wider" Rohm. Made more stupidly ignorant liberal comments than Jill Hennessy did, is a terrible actress to boot; totally uncreditable. Best part was that the character was fired. Worst part was that as she was being fired, she inexplicably says, "Is this because I am a lesbian". Complete joke, which, unfortunately, Dick Wolf puts into this fine show all too often.