University Of Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS -- At a time when farmers nationally are planting more corn than they did a year ago to capitalize on the ethanol boom, not everyone will be rolling in cash after the harvest. "We're not planting more corn because corn is cool," said Ed Usset, an economist with the University of Minnesota Extension Service. "The economics are there. The ethanol craze is driving this." But farmers face higher fuel costs and higher feed costs for their livestock. Landowners have raised rents on farmland.

On the second floor of an anonymous building on a side street in St. Louis Park, Minn., a shamana is at work. As cars trundle by outside her office window, she sings and taps a plant rattle across her client's back as she calls for the Great Spirit to heal body, heart and mind. Connie Grauds, 59, a pharmacist who grew up in nearby Forest Lake, practices her ancient healing art with one foot in this world and the other in the realm of the unexplainable. She says she has become a conduit for the life force in nature.

It wasn't what Denny Neagle had hoped, but still he's there in the big show.A 1986 graduate of Arundel High in Gambrills, Neagle's first appearance in the big leagues was shortened Saturday night by Candy Maldonado of the Milwaukee Brewers.Making his major league debut for the Minnesota Twins in front ofnearly 48,000 fans at the Metrodome, Neagle took a lined shot off Maldonado's bat at the start of the fourth inning; he was hit on the elbow of his left arm -- his pitching arm. Neagle had to leave the gamewith runners on first and second and the Twins leading, 2-1. He received a standing ovation from Twins fans as he departed.

Tom Lehman's home in Arizona will be minus one of its prized possessions this week. It was taken right before Lehman and his family packed up for their trip to Scotland. Taken right off the mantel in the living room."I could see it every time I walked in the front door," Lehman said last month.Actually, Lehman took it.And Lehman hopes to bring it back when he and the family return next week.It is a claret jug. Lehman brought it home to Scottsdale after winning last year's British Open. Having recently returned it to the folks at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, Lehman would like to borrow it for another year.

Walk down a pharmacy aisle and you'll see these words on almost every home pregnancy kit -- "ready to use first day of missed period" and "more than 99 percent accurate." But it turns out the vast majority of brands detect only 16 percent or fewer of pregnancies if they are used as early as recommended, according to new research. Only one test is sensitive enough to detect 95 percent or more of pregnancies when used so early. "There is no incentive for the manufacturers to make them more accurate," said Lawrence Cole, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque and author of the study, which appeared in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Adults who eat a large bowl of oat bran cereal every day can reduce their blood cholesterol levels by a moderate amount, an analysis of 10 studies has found.Cholesterol levels fell an average of 2 percent to 3 percent in the 1,278 adults studied. There were larger drops in people with higher blood cholesterol levels.The study, being published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, was conducted by Cynthia M. Ripson and Dr. Joseph M. Keenan of the department of family practice at the University ofMinnesota.

Franz Schubert was one of the great classic composers whose music remains much-beloved. One researcher now suggests that he also may have been a homosexual. Does this matter as we appreciate his "Unfinished Symphony"? Should it?Susan McClary, a feminist musicologist at the University of Minnesota, raises that question in her recent book, "Feminine Endings." She argues that Schubert's sexual orientation can be traced note for note in the structure of his symphonies, chamber music and songs.

Thomas R. Gibson, a retired rapid-transit project manager and World War II maritime radio operator who returned to sea as a radioman during the Persian Gulf War, died July 30 of cancer at the Charlestown retirement community. The former Joppa resident was 86. Mr. Gibson, the son of a Northern Pacific railroader and a homemaker, was born and raised in Minneapolis, where he graduated from high school. Mr. Gibson's interest in ham radio began during his high school days and continued when he worked at a radio station in Green Bay, Wis. By 1941, he had earned his radio license from the Federal Communications Commission.

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to bid a fond farewell to some cherished companions: our shoes. From the faithful running shoe to the whimsical sandal, from the sensible work loafer to the sexy stiletto, all shoes reach a point at which they have outlived their usefulness, and we must let them go. Our time together may seem fleeting, but we hang onto favorites past their prime at our peril. "The shoe wears out in the area where we overload it, so the part where you need the most support isn't there," said Minneapolis podiatrist Paul Langer, clinical professor at the University of Minnesota.

LOS ANGELES -- Children who eat more than 12 hot dogs per month have nine times the normal risk of developing childhood leukemia, a University of Southern California epidemiologist reports in a cancer research journal.Two other reports in the same issue of Cancer Causes and Control also suggest that children born to mothers who eat at least one hot dog per week during pregnancy have double the normal risk of developing brain tumors, as do children whose fathers ate hot dogs before conception.