The James Logan Courier

By David Lightman
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

DENVER — On a historic day echoing the dreams of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy, Democrat Barack Obama on Thursday became the first African-American to accept a major-party presidential nomination and immediately set a JFK-like goal: to end America's dependence on Middle East oil within 10 years.

"For the sake of our economy, our security and the future of our planet," he said, with a stern look on his face, "I will set a clear goal as president: In 10 years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East."

Critics slam Obama for being all rhetoric and no substance, but in a summer when Americans are paying nearly $4 a gallon for gasoline and fretting about high heating costs to come this winter, he vowed to end what he called "this addiction" to oil.

By Roger Moore
The Orlando Sentinel (MCT)

Harlowe to Monroe, Mansfield to Hawn to ... Anna Faris?

Every generation needs its dumb movie blondes. Might the star of those progressively worse "Scary Movies" and "The House Bunny" be ours?

"The House Bunny" is a real tour de Faris. She plays Shelley, who has just aged out of her right to residency at the Playboy Mansion. She's 27 ("59 in Bunny years!"). And she will never realize her lifelong dream — to be a centerfold.

"It says, 'I'm naked, in the middle of a magazine. Un-FOLD me!'"


So poor Shelley is homeless, or she is until she recognizes her tribe, wandering into another mansion. But she can't become a shallow, dizzy sorority girl without enrolling. She can, however, become house mother to the Zekes, the lowliest sorority on campus, where misfits, social lepers, nerds and losers reside.

By Colin Covert
Star Tribune (Minneapolis) (MCT)

"The Death Race" is not smart or graceful or inventive, but it delivers what it promises, a kinetic outpouring of energy, blood and destruction. Photographed almost exclusively in hues of battleship gray and fireball orange, the film is set in near-future postapocalyptic America. This time the catastrophe was economic, and the corporations that operate all the nation's penitentiaries have developed a lucrative sideline in gladiatorial auto races. Driving muscle cars pimped out with hood-mounted machine guns and napalm nozzles in place of turn signals, prisoners blast each other on pay-per-view, competing for the chance to win their release papers.

By Roger Moore
The Orlando Sentinel (MCT)

"Traitor" is a solid, gripping, only occasionally preachy thriller built around the War on Terror. Ripped-from-the-headlines realism, top-drawer performances by Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce, a dandy "ticking clock" story structure and a vast catalog of terrorist modus operandi make this as harrowing as it is timely.

Samir (Cheadle) was born in Sudan but grew up in America. He served his new country in the military, but when we meet him, he's selling plastic explosives to Islamic terrorists in Yemen. He's a devout Muslim. He's tough. The Arab terror cell al-Nathir wants him.

And after he's been slapped around by FBI agents in a Yemeni prison, he's open to the offer of cell leader Omar (Said Taghmaoui).

By Joanne Weintraub
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (MCT)

One is sun-sparkled Aegean blue, the other dark as ink. One teems with women scattering flowers, the other with men tossing grenades.

Both are highly entertaining, though each has moments of sheer over-the-top goofiness when viewers' eyebrows may arch toward their hairlines.

So why is "Mamma Mia!" considered a guilty pleasure, while "The Dark Knight" is widely respected as a grown-up drama?

Compiled from Courier Staff Reports

Thousands of students returned to James Logan this week, some cheering their return to school, and some lamenting the end of their summer vacations.

As of Friday morning, 3,920 students were enrolled in the high school, one of the largest in the state.

Some were happy to get back to their school work.

Junior Raven Jones' first days back on campus were "awesome...it went well."

"It was cool to come back to school...having something to do," said Toni Polé, a junior.

From wikipedia:
Dinah Washington (August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963) was a blues, R&B and jazz singer. Because of her strong voice and emotional singing, she is known as the Queen of the Blues. Despite dying at the early age of 39, Washington became one of the most influential vocalists of the twentieth century, credited among others as a major influence on Aretha Franklin. She is a 1986 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.

Washington was born Ruth Lee Jones in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Her family moved to Chicago while she was still a child. As a child in Chicago she played piano and directed her church choir. She later studied in Walter Dyett's renowned music program at DuSable High School. At 16 as Ruth Jones, she toured the United States' black gospel circuit with Roberta Martin accompanying her at the piano. There was a period when she both performed in clubs as Dinah Washington while singing and playing piano in Sallie Martin's gospel choir as Ruth Jones.

Read more about Dinah Washington's life and career, free from vervemusicgroup.com.