Posted: 06 Mar 2010 10:18 PM PST

Scott Pruett held off a late charge by David Donohue to win Saturday's Grand Prix of Miami, round two of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series.

Pruett and Memo Rojas scored their second victory in three years at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Riley-BMW, holding off the No. 59 Brumos Riley-Porsche of Donohue and pole winner Darren Law by 0.255-second.

In GT, Jeff Segal passed SpeedSource teammate Sylvain Tremblay on the race's lone restart with 13 minutes remaining and went on to win in the No. 69 Mazda RX-8. It was the third triumph in the last six races for Segal and Emil Assentato.

"I sure didn't want to see that last caution, but I was happy for the fans," Pruett said after scoring his 23rd Rolex Series overall win. "This is tough competition. You never know what's going to happen until the checkered flag falls. It was pretty exciting in my seat, that's for sure."

Donohue was able to pull up to the back of Pruett several times in the closing laps but was unable to pass. Pruett managed to weave through GT-class traffic in the infield on the final lap, and maintained the lead through the superspeedway banking.

Alex Gurney finished third in the No. 99 Gainsco/Bob Stallings Racing Riley-Chevrolet started by Jon Fogarty. Burt Frisselle finished fourth in AIM Autosport's No. 61 Riley-Ford, followed by Ryan Dalziel in the debut of the No. 8 Starworks Riley-BMW started by Mike Forest, the leading Daytona Prototype Pro-Am driver in the event.

A turning point came on Lap 81 of the two-hour, 45-minute race. The cockpit of the No. 30 Racers Edge Motorsports Mazda RX-8 exploded into flames, and Jordan Taylor came to a stop in the middle of pit road. The blaze was quickly extinguished and the race remained under green, but Taylor's car was stopped at the center of the pit lane when Law pitted in the race-leading No. 59 Brumos car.

"There was a car on fire, there were people on pit lane, and I almost came to a stop," Law explained. "I didn't want to hit anybody. It's unfortunate, because I lost all of the gap I had gained. Up until then, I was feeling really, really good."

Taylor was uninjured in the incident, but the Mazda started by Todd Lamb was eliminated after having a strong run.

"It wasn't as big a fire as it looked," Taylor said. "It ended up being some of the insulation in the exhaust catching fire."

Donohue replaced Law on the ensuing pit stop. Pruett took the lead in the exchange and led the rest of the way.

Pruett and Rojas averaged 107.196 mph, completing 129 laps on the 2.3-mile circuit, and took the points lead by six (67-61) over Dalziel. The race remained caution-free until Lap 115, for debris in turns four and eight. Law led a race-high 71 laps, followed by Pruett with 48. Other race leaders included Fogarty, who led the opening six laps, and Ryan Hunter-Reay, who led two laps in the No. 95 Level 5 Motorsports Riley-BMW.

Rolex 24 At Daytona winners Terry Borcheller and Dalziel each led one lap in different cars. Borcheller was running in contention in the Daytona-winning No. 9 Action Express entry. Joao Barbosa, the 2009 Homestead winner seeking his third consecutive Rolex Series victory, went behind the wall early in his shift to replace the heat exchanger.

Tremblay and new regular SpeedSource co-driver Jonathan Bomarito led a GT-class leading 44 laps in the Rolex 24-winning No. 70 Mazda RX-8.

Tremblay, who led 27 laps, fell back to fourth in the closing laps, but he and Bomarito maintained the GT points lead by three (63-60) over Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis, who finished second in the No. 57 Stevenson Automotive Group/Vin Solutions Chevrolet Camaro. Finishing third were Leh Keen and James Gue in the No. 41 Dempsey Racing Mazda RX-8.

Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand finished a solid fifth in GT in the No. 94 Turner Motorsport BMW M6. The car ran only three laps in practice prior to the race and did not qualify due to problems with its power steering. Team owner Will Turner installed a power steering unit from a Daytona Prototype prior to the race, and Auberlen and Hand ran in contention throughout the event, with Hand leading four laps.

Paul Edwards started from the GT pole in Banner Racing's No. 07 Chevrolet Corvette and led the opening 31 laps before turning the car over to motorcycle legend Scott Russell. Edwards returned to the car for the closing shift, finishing sixth--one position ahead of Patrick Dempsey and Joe Foster in the No. 40 Dempsey Racing Mazda RX-8.

Ted Ballou and Andy Lally had the highest-finishing Porsche, placing eighth in the No. 66 AXA Porsche 911 GT3.

Grand-Am's next Rolex Series race is scheduled for April 10 at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala.

For more Grand-Am racing news and reports, click here.

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Play ball! - Florida Today

Posted: 06 Mar 2010 10:11 PM PST

VIERA — And so it begins.

The first baseball was pitched -- and taken for a ball at 1:05 p.m. on Saturday -- by the Washington Nationals' John Lannan. It began a 2010 local season that stretches until September when the Brevard County Manatees' Florida State League campaign wraps up.

As the cliché goes, it was a perfect day for spring baseball, a cloudless blue sky, a breeze and temperatures in the 60s.

And Space Coast Stadium was nearly full despite the overwhelmingly who-are-these-guys roster masquerading as the New York Mets.

The place is expected to be full for Friday's visit from the 27-time World Series champion New York Yankees, although the chances of the Bronx Bombers bringing anyone you might recognize enough to ask for an autograph are slim.

After all, this is spring training when hope springs eternal even for guys bound for the bus leagues and the Mets and the Nationals themselves, two of the worst teams in baseball last season, the Mets finishing 70-92 and the Nationals 59-103.

But for now, the uniforms are crisp and clean and the grass is bright and green. It's time to play ball, to forget ill fortunes of seasons past and look to seasons to come. Can there be a better time of the year? A time before the grind of the 162-game season wears players and teams down much like waves breaking incessantly on the shore? When the daunting, day-in, day-out demands of the game flummox even the most stout? And when fate deals unfairly with all deemed fearless enough to tempt it?

A time when mistakes will be made but won't really matter? A time when score will be kept but no one will really care? And a time when National League teams actually use the despised designated hitter.

A time when fans boo more to see if they still remember how as opposed to booing because they believe a player long despised needs reminding that he is still, well, despised? After all, no one has truly done anything at this point to be subject to discourtesy no matter how traditional.

That's the beauty of this time of year, when games truly are exhibitions with some players exhibiting why they are on the big league roster and others exhibiting why they believe they should be.

And fans sit back in the sun, expressing their own opinions and assessing their own grades as to who they believe is deserving of a trip north with the big club and who needs to stay down on the farm and get more seasoning before seeing old Pariee?

That's what spring is all about. It's a time of year when batting averages, bases on balls, bonehead plays and the bottom line don't matter nearly as much.

Savor the spring. Save all the rest for the regular season when baseball's inner beast will lurk like a looming thunderstorm before bursting forth in all its bluster to soak us all in everything that is America's greatest game.

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Jordan's business past flops - The Sun News

Posted: 06 Mar 2010 08:45 PM PST

Yet despite his successes, Jordan's lengthy post-basketballresume is peppered with business plans, from car dealerships to driving ranges to restaurants, that didn't pan out.

Partners rave about his astute business sense, but others say he's not committed enough, dabbles in too much - that the skills that propelled him to six NBA titles, five MVPs and a 1982 NCAA title at UNC don't translate to the business world.

Now, in the days since Jordan agreed to buy the Charlotte Bobcats, mixed opinions have surfaced on how he'll fare.

"He was just ruthless on the court, and he had the ability - he was almost seeing the game and plays in slow motion," said Allen Sanderson, an economics professor at the University of Chicago. "But I just don't see that same dedication off the court."

Jordan, a minority partner and head of basketball operations for the Bobcats since 2006, is expected to be approved as controlling owner in the next two months. He has not revealed the purchase price, though industry sources estimate it was more than $250 million.

Jordan catapulted to success in the NBA and quickly built an endorsement empire, pitching everything from Gatorade to Wheaties to Hanes underwear.

At one point, experts estimated he raked in $40 million a year from his endorsements alone.

Jordan has embarked on other business ventures, too. In 1996, he launched Michael Jordan Cologne, the first licensed product to bear his name and one of the most successful fragrance introductions in history.

He owns a stake in Nike's Jordan Brand, a market leader in shoes and athletic wear, started Michael Jordan Motorsports, a professional motorcycle road racing team, and launched a series of restaurants in New York, Chicago, Connecticut and Chapel Hill, N.C.

"Anything he touches, he likes, and it needs to be special," said David Zadikoff, chief executive of Jump Higher LLC, which owns and operates Jordan's restaurants. "Michael's main standards all represent excellence."

The pair have worked together for 12 years, since they opened Chicago's One Sixtyblue. Jordan has helped design the restaurants, though he relies on Jump Higher to market them and handle day-to-day operations, Zadikoff said.

"It was always about, first, do a great concept," he said. "Of course, Michael's name is world-renowned, and of course people will expect something, but then you have to deliver."

Jordan's businesses haven't always done so.

His first dining establishment, Michael Jordan's Restaurant in Chicago, opened with fanfare in 1993 but closed a few years later, his partners claiming Jordan hadn't been there in years. The Chapel Hill restaurant, 23.sportcafe, also closed.

And Jordan's Michael Jordan Golf Centers concept, pitched as a way to make the sport more accessible to minorities, was sold to AMF Bowling in 1997.

In 2005, Jordan announced his involvement in a $600 million condominium-hotel-resort in Las Vegas, but the project was later canceled.

Still, "he's a superior businessman," said Michael Peterson, a close friend and owner of the project's Chicago-based developer, Diversified Real Estate Concepts Inc. "Hopefully, his acquisition [of the Bobcats] will be a success."

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Census questions reflect history - Gainesville Times

Posted: 06 Mar 2010 08:52 PM PST

Census officials say this year's survey is one of the shortest in history.

And that's saying a lot; the census is mandated by the Constitution and thus has been around for 220 years.

"(This year), it is all about the number 10. Ten questions that will take 10 minutes or less that will impact the quality of life in your community for the next 10 years," said Manuel Landivar, assistant regional census manager in the Atlanta area.

It asks simple questions about how many people are in the household, what their names are and their sex and race.

In previous years, the short form had as many as 15 questions, and the long form, which was sent to about 15 percent of the houses in the country, had 67 questions.

In 2000, Census Bureau officials stopped using the long form and began collecting socioeconomic information through the American Community Survey. About 250,000 people are surveyed that way each month, Landivar said.

"This way we can have actualized data throughout the decade," Landivar said.

That change is one of a few big changes over the years for the census, according to the Census Bureau Web site, www.census.gov.

When the census began in 1790, questions were basic. How many males in the household are younger than 16 and how many older than 16? White females, other free people and slaves also were counted. Through the 1800s, age breakdowns got more specific.

World events and social changes, such as the abolition of slavery and the Great Depression, were evidenced in the questions.

In 1850, there were two questionnaires — one for free people, one for slaves. By 1870, after the Emancipation Proclamation, forms no longer asked about slaves.

Questions about race got more specific through the years. What began as black, white or mulatto now includes a variety of Asian and Hispanic descents and allows people to mark more than one box.

Toward the beginning of the Great Depression, the 1930 census asked, "Does this person live on a farm NOW?" and "Did this person live on a farm A YEAR AGO?" Later in 1940, it included questions about much people worked, how much they made and whether or not they had a Social Security number. The Social Security Act was enacted in 1935 to provide benefits for the elderly, among others.

The 1940 census also was the first to include a separate questionnaire on the condition of the nation's housing.

"In order to gauge the effect of the Great Depression on the nation's housing stock, a census of occupied dwellings was coupled with the usual demographic questions," according to the census Web site.

Unlike the general population questionnaire, this census form asked questions about the characteristics of housing, such as what material the home was constructed from and whether it needed major repairs. It also asked about running water, toilet facilities, lighting, refrigeration, heating and fuel.

By 1960, the census asked about how people got to work. Answers for that category increased through the years with the addition of transportation modes like motorcycles, trucks, vans and even ferryboats. Now, with the American Community Survey, there no longer is a decennial long census form that asks detailed questions about how we live.

The short form collects information needed to determine whether states and local governments need more representation in legislative bodies or whether they need to redraw their boundaries to more equally represent each district in legislative bodies.

Census officials expect the new 10-question form will garner a better response than previous decennial surveys. Landivar said he expects the response rate to improve in the metro-Atlanta area by at least 2 to 3 percent.

Staff writer Ashley Fielding contributed to this report.

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