HOUSTON - The battle between eighth-ranked Vanderbilt and 16th-ranked Arizona State was as good as advertised, needing extrainnings to determine the outcome. A wild pitch on an intentional walk in the 10th handed ASU its first loss of the season, 7-6 at the Houston College Classic at Minute Maid Park.

Braving the suspicion that they might have a little too much time on their hands, the good people at PNC Financial Services Group have calculated, as they have annually since 1984, a Christmas Price Index, finding it at an all-time high.

PITTSBURGH - While the origins of the Christmas carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas” may be a mystery, one thing is certain: It’s getting more costly to buy your true love all the items mentioned.

The photographs present a chilling portrait of sex and death.

Imagine the sound of your stereo speakers blowing and multiply it by 100. That’s what fans heard during Ashlee Simpson’s sound plagued set at the Dodge Theatre on Sunday night.

LAS VEGAS - Westcor, the Valley’s retail powerhouse, announced a host of new tenants for its East Valley properties during the first day of the International Conference of Shopping Center’s spring convention.

LAS VEGAS - Westcor, the Valley’s retail powerhouse, announced a host of new tenants for its East Valley properties during the first day of the International Conference of Shopping Center’s spring convention.

LOS ANGELES — Movie screens this summer are not entirely booked with superheroes, kiddie fare and goofy buddy flicks. Plenty of mature dramas and comedies about dealing with — or escaping from — the problems of real life arrive alongside the season's big studio offerings.

The documentary "The Queen of Versailles" begins life as a juicy guilty pleasure, allowing us to gawk and cluck at the nouveau-riche ostentation of an elderly time-share mogul and his much-younger trophy wife as they build their dream home: a 90,000-square-foot palace that would be the biggest house in America.

Tom Purcell: Here's an interesting trend: Halloween has fast become the second-most-decorated holiday. Jack-o-lanterns and goblins and lighted trees are all over the place now. Halloween spending has risen to nearly $5 billion annually -- not bad for a non-gift-giving, non-government-sanctioned holiday. 

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Martin Scorsese's Paris adventure "Hugo" leads the Academy Awards with 11 nominations, among them best picture and the latest director honor for the Oscar-winning filmmaker.

April 18, 2005

Leave your snazzy 21st-century vocabulary at home. Modern slang like brodown, sideboob, faceboink, brickberry and Palinized will do you no good at the Arizona Renaissance Festival.

VATICAN CITY - Black smoke poured from the Sistine Chapel's chimney Monday evening, signaling that the cardinals sequestered inside for the first papal conclave of the new millennium failed to elect a new pope.

East Valley librarians recommended so many books for summer reading that we couldn't fit them all in the print edition of the paper. The full list is below. Please contact your local library or bookseller directly to see if a particular book is in stock.

Perhaps the most interesting personality on either team is Ohio State receiver Anthony Gonzalez, a philosophy major who earlier this week said college athletes were the most exploited group of people in the United States.