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Top Universities
Caltech was ranked seventh among national universities by U.S. News and World Report, which today released its annual list of "Best Colleges." Caltech tied at seventh with traditional rival Massachusetts Institute of Technology. USC tied for 23rd place with Carnegie Mellon. UCLA tied for 25th with University of Virginia and Wake Forest.
Topping the list were Ivy Leaguers Harvard, Princeton and Yale.
Home Sales Plummet
Southland home sales plummeted more than 21% last month from last July. It's their biggest drop in over two years. MDA DataQuick said today the drop from about 24-thousand homes last July to around 19-thousand last month came as federal tax credits that had been fueling sales expired.
The firm says last month was the slowest July since 2007 when just under 18-thousand homes sold.
Death of Columnist James J. Kilpatrick
James J. Kilpatrick, who rose from cub reporter to become one of the South's most prominent newspaper editors and the nation's most widely syndicated political columnist, died last night of congestive heart failure. He was 89.
TV watchers in the 70s knew Kilpatrick as the conservative half of the ``Point-Counterpoint'' segment of the CBS ``60 Minutes.'' His sparring with liberal commentator Shana Alexander was famously parodied on Saturday Night Live. Before retiring a couple of years ago, he worked for years for
Universal Press Syndicate. He also was the author of a dozen books and numerous magazine
articles. He wrote columns on the Supreme Court and The Writer's Art, on the use and abuse of the English language, which appeared in hundreds of newspapers.
Kilpatrick was for many years a vocal supporter of racial segregation. When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down separate but equal schools in its Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954,
he accused the court of repudiating the Constitution. His wife said he apologized over and over publicly and in print when he could about being on the wrong side of the segregation issue.
Kilpatrick, who received numerous journalism awards, was one of the few columnists ever honored as a fellow of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Zsa Zsa Back in the Hospital
Zsa Zsa Gabor is back to the UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center. Her publicist says she's returning to the hopsital because of complications in her recuperation from a broken hip.
The 93-year-old actress broke her hip July 17 and was sent home from UCLA Wednesday.
Judge Keeps Gay Marriage on Hold
A federal judge has ruled that gay marriages in California should remain on hold until at least August 18th. Judge Vaughn Walker set the deadline to give gay marriage opponents time to appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
If the appeals court fails to act by 5 o'clock on the 18th then gay marriages can forward.
