Savard's effort is wasted in defeat // Stellar 4-goal performance shines above Hawks' gloom

Denis Savard had thought hard about what he wanted to do lastnight.

"This game is 75 percent mental," he said. "I spent a lot oftime thinking today. I know I'm best when I skate. That's the mainthing I was thinking of."

He came out skating all right. Savard scored a Black Hawkplayoff record four goals, and he had a couple near-misses as heflashed around the net.

After the game, though, Savard was thinking four goals didn'tadd up to much.

"In the regular season, we play for personal goals - contractstuff and all that," Savard said after the Hawks had lost 6-4 to theToronto Maple Leafs. "But at this time of the year we play for theteam. We play …

Stock Futures Point Lower After Sell-Off

NEW YORK - Wall Street was poised to open lower Wednesday as concerns about subprime loans continued to dog the stock market, which declined sharply a day earlier.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 148 points Tuesday when Standard & Poor's and Moody's slashed their ratings on hundreds of classes of bonds backed by risky home loans. Troubling forecasts from retailers Home Depot, Sears, homebuilder D.R. Horton, and a spike in oil prices also weighed on stocks.

On Wednesday, Wall Street appeared to be maintaining a cautious stance as it awaited this week's next round of major earnings reports. After the market closes, biotechnology company Genentech Inc. and …

Romanian contingent ends Iraq deployment

Romania's 300-strong military contingent in Iraq has ended its deployment in Iraq with a ceremony held at its base in the southern province of Dhi Qar attended by President Traian Basescubut.

The ceremony Thursday was held at the Imam Ali military base in Dhi Qar's capital Nasiriyah.

The Romanian contingent is among a handful that has remained in Iraq after …

Grant's Tomb Neglect Riles State

GALENA, Ill. Groucho Marx used to ask, "Who's buried in Grant'sTomb?" If some irritated Illinoisans get their wish, the answerwon't be "Ulysses S. Grant."

"Unconditional Surrender" Grant, the Civil War hero and 18thU.S. president, currently is buried next to his wife, Julia, in agrandiose, thousand-square-foot mausoleum in New York City. The tombonce attracted more visitors than the Statue of Liberty, butout-of-town sightseers in Manhattan are now warned to stay away.

Maintenance of the tomb has all but unconditionally surrenderedto the rigors of urban blight. Homeless people sleep there. Drugaddicts loiter and leave behind empty crack vials. Vandalsspray-paint …

Obama planning new package of economic aid

WASHINGTON (AP) — Eager to jumpstart the economy ahead of crucial midterm elections, President Barack Obama said Friday he intends to unveil a new package of proposals, likely including tax cuts and targeted spending, to spark job growth.

Obama spoke in the Rose Garden after the August jobs report came out better than expected, showing the private sector adding 67,000 new jobs last month and revising upward the numbers from June and July. But unemployment ticked upward to 9.6 percent as more people entered the job market, and the president said it wasn't good enough.

"That's why we need to take further steps to create jobs and keep the economy growing, including extending tax …

Juan Pablo Montoya differs in Ganassi's low assessment of team performance

His car owner issued a scathing progress report of their entire NASCAR operation, but Juan Pablo Montoya doesn't think problems at Chip Ganassi Racing are as severe as the boss indicated.

Ganassi ripped into his three-car operation last weekend after Scottish driver Dario Franchitti failed to qualify for Sunday's Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. It led Ganassi to criticize all three of his teams with a veiled threat that changes may be coming.

But Montoya, the star driver of the team, said although he was ranked just 19th in the standings, the situation was actually better than it was this time last season.

"On average we are running a …

Judge revives parks' snowmobile ban

WASHINGTON -- The National Park Service must revive a plan,scrapped by the Bush administration, to ban snowmobiles fromYellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, a federal judge orderedTuesday.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said the Bush administrationshould not have set aside a Clinton administration plan that wouldhave banned snowmobiles in favor of mass-transit snow coaches, whichwould reduce pollution in the …