It is official. Cathy Hall of Mechanicsville will reign as the Hanover Christmas Mother for 2007.Hall was nominated by the Mechanicsville Ruritan Club to serve as this year's ambassador.The announcement was made Oct. 31 at a gathering of beautiful, dedicated ladies who had served as Christmas Mother during Christmases past.Frank and Deborah Flippo, of Pebble Hill in Doswell hosted this much-anticipated annual tea.The Christmas mother program began in 1950 by the Doswell Women's Club, whose members graciously provided the refreshments for this year's tea. After the program grew by leaps and bounds, this wonderful group of ladies decided that they needed help, so the Doswell Ruritan Club took over the reins and have been the steering committee for the past 18 years.As the county began to grow and more and more Ruritan Clubs wanted to be involved, the Doswell Ruritans decided to involve all the clubs in Hanover.Now, each Ruritan Club has an opportunity to nominate a woman who they feel can best fill the big shoes of serving as Christmas Mother.

The Fountain Pen

A new electronic voting system has been installed at Guelph's city hall. The new system allows members of council to vote in favour or against a motion by pressing the appropriate button. An overhead screen then displays how each individual voted. All votes other than procedural motions are recorded, and the meeting minutes show how each member voted.

Previously, votes were only recorded when requested by a member of council. Non-recorded votes were taken by a show of hands and not listed in the minutes. Thus, there was no record of how councillors voted. In the case of recorded votes, the Clerk had to call each member's name and manually record his or her vote. The electronic system will enable members of Council to vote simultaneously. The system also eliminates the potential to mis-hear voice votes or mis-count hands.

KRIEGER: Forsberg worth the risk

Forsberg's homecoming may produce a similar result. But the joy of his return for hockey fans will be in the discovery. It doesn't have to be the same as it was. It only has to be better than it is. Joel Quenneville suggested he will skate on a line with Sakic or Paul Stastny once he is ready. Is there a hockey fan in Denver who would not pay to watch that?

Get Off of My Cloud

In Google's words, its recently unveiled "Android" is the "first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices." But it is a signal of much more. Google is as much an ideology as a firm and can resemble a nation-state in its pursuit of power rather than a mere corporation chasing quarterly numbers. Google and its allies are now trying to make the principles of openness—the commanding ideology of the Internet—the conquering principle of the wireless world, and the Android announcement is just the first step.

Android is, in form, another of Google's giveaway strategies, a Linux-based operating system for mobile phones that comes with a free set of tools that should make it easy for any programmer to write applications for a mobile phone. It's clear that any Android-based Gphone will be far more "open" than any cell phone the world has yet seen.

Bath man indicted for kidnapping, assault

A 28-year-old Bath man was indicted Wednesday on kidnapping and assault charges for allegedly attacking a 16-year-old girl last August. Darren P. McEathron is accused of dragging the victim into a wooded area off Birdseye Hollow Road in Wayne. The victim, who did not know her attacker, was riding her bicycle in the area. The man is accused of assaulting the girl Aug. 18, causing injuries to her face and extremities, according to state police at Bath. McEathron did not sexually assault the girl, authorities said. The victim was able to escape her attacker when he left her briefly unattended. McEathron, who was arrested in early January, was indicted without the results of a DNA sample he provided to investigators shortly after his arrest. Steuben County District Attorney John Tunney said his office has not yet received those results.

Ottawa moves to emulate U.S. on new fuel mileage standards

That we don't speaks more for the average Canadian than the car companies or our rules.
I had 2 Pontiac Fireflies, one was actually a Susuki Forsa and the other was a Susuki Swift.
Both were 5 speed, 5 passenger, 3 cylinder, stationwagon types. Each of them got 64 MILES to the GALLON. From 1988 thru to 2000, I car pooled using them (32 miles each way) and made a killing. I totally loved them and was extremely disappointed when Pontiac stoped selling them.
Granted, they are the 'SECOND CAR' but they were my main car - the wife didn't like them and drove a much larger vehicle that I didn't like. Posted 17/01/08 at 4:32 AM EST | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment .