Citadel

Michele and Russell Poland's credit was shot, but they managed to buy their suburban dream home anyway. After a business bankruptcy and a home foreclosure, they turned to a rare option in this era of tightfisted banking - a subprime loan. The Polands paid nearly $10,000 in upfront fees for the privilege of securing a mortgage at 10.9% interest. And they had to raid their retirement account for a 35% down payment. Most borrowers would balk at such stiff terms. But with prices rising, the Polands wanted to snag a four-bedroom home in Temecula near top-rated schools for their 5-year-old son. By later this year, they figure, they'll be able to refinance into a standard loan.

Anyone who dismisses television viewing as a passive activity clearly hasn't watched "Game of Thrones. " HBO's crown jewel requires the sort of OCD focus and possibly the same picture-plastered, color-coded white board that Carrie Mathison used to track down Abu Nazir in Showtime's "Homeland. " As with the George R.R. Martin series from whence it sprung, "Game of Thrones" has redefined "sprawling epic. " And as Season 3 opens, the sprawl factor is perilously high, with the multitudinous characters - seven families, people, from seven kingdoms - scattered all over Westeros, their story lines progressing in an ever-climbing wall of overlapping layers, a citadel of narrative.

In the United States, despite a Constitution that mandates the separation of church and state, religion and politics have become inseparable. To lend authority to their views, presidential aspirants of both parties regularly press God into service. They know what he intends. So the claims made by Republican front-runner Mitt Romney in a recent speech at the Citadel managed to be both striking and unexceptionable. "God did not create this country to be a nation of followers," Romney announced.

The feature debut from Irish writer-director Ciarán Foy, "Citadel" attempts to transform mundane anxieties into the stuff of a horror film. But the initial tension of the premise dissipates like a slow leak. Tommy (Aneurin Barnard) is trapped inside an elevator watching helplessly as hooded thugs attack his pregnant wife. Stabbed with a syringe, she goes into a coma and never awakens, though doctors successfully deliver the baby. The film then becomes a parable of urban anxiety and the fear of fatherhood, as Tommy develops severe agoraphobia, refusing to leave his apartment while also becoming convinced those same kids are coming back for his newborn infant.

Redefining women's suffrage: Shannon Faulkner's one week at The Citadel. HUGH GLENN Irvine

The feature debut from Irish writer-director Ciarán Foy, "Citadel" attempts to transform mundane anxieties into the stuff of a horror film. But the initial tension of the premise dissipates like a slow leak. Tommy (Aneurin Barnard) is trapped inside an elevator watching helplessly as hooded thugs attack his pregnant wife. Stabbed with a syringe, she goes into a coma and never awakens, though doctors successfully deliver the baby. The film then becomes a parable of urban anxiety and the fear of fatherhood, as Tommy develops severe agoraphobia, refusing to leave his apartment while also becoming convinced those same kids are coming back for his newborn infant.

Citadel Holding Corp. on Tuesday suddenly postponed its annual meeting, which had been scheduled for this morning in Burbank. The move effectively headed off a confrontation between Citadel, parent firm of Fidelity Federal Savings & Loan Assn., and dissident shareholder Alfred Roven, a Los Angeles real estate developer and investor. The news also comes on the heels of the announcement Monday that Great Western Financial Corp. had agreed to acquire Citadel for $109 million in stock.

Begun in 1819, Ft. Snelling at the time was the remotest military outpost on the American frontier. (Now it's just a mile from the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.) It was built to protect U.S. interests (read: fur trade) in this corner of the Louisiana Purchase and to keep peace among the region's Native American peoples even as the federal government laid claim to their lands. The fort did its job, but not without controversy: The slave Dred Scott based his bid for freedom on time spent here, and after the bloody 1862 U.S.-Dakota War, 1,600 Native Americans were imprisoned on the river flats below.

Here are some of Shannon Faulkner's comments as she announced Friday that she was leaving The Citadel: "The problems were not the ones The Citadel were worried about. They are due to stress--the stress of the past 2 1/2 years of fighting--not the stress of the corps or anything like that. . . . "I know that by me leaving today so many people are either mad at me or disappointed in me, and some are elated that I am leaving. "All I have to say is, I have to think about my own health right now.

Re "The Predictable Citadel," editorial, Jan. 14: It is abundantly clear that the anti-military media, including The Times, are willing to tolerate the continued existence of The Citadel only if it becomes a bastion of gender sensitivity. That is not going to happen. War is hell, and The Citadel has the mission of preparing its students for war. That is not quite the same as attending a seminar hosted by Gloria Allred or Anita Hill. At The Citadel, some students can take it. Others can't, and drop out. Some of these dropouts hire lawyers and stage press conferences.

Begun in 1819, Ft. Snelling at the time was the remotest military outpost on the American frontier. (Now it's just a mile from the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.) It was built to protect U.S. interests (read: fur trade) in this corner of the Louisiana Purchase and to keep peace among the region's Native American peoples even as the federal government laid claim to their lands. The fort did its job, but not without controversy: The slave Dred Scott based his bid for freedom on time spent here, and after the bloody 1862 U.S.-Dakota War, 1,600 Native Americans were imprisoned on the river flats below.

  Imperial soldiers once patrolled its battlements. Treasure lay heaped in vaulted storerooms. Prisoners languished in its depths; princes plotted the course of empires. But by late in the last century, the mighty fortress overlooking this western Afghan city had fallen into ruin. Built on a plateau thought to have been a redoubt of Alexander the Great, the Citadel of Herat has been brought back to life. Reopened last month as a museum and cultural center after a painstaking refurbishment, the 15th century structure serves as a poignant reminder of past glories in a country beaten down by decades of war and deprivation.

CHARLESTON, S.C. — In the aftermath of the Penn State child sexual abuse scandal, another university, the Citadel military college in South Carolina, revealed Saturday that it had investigated accusations against a camp counselor but took no action. The man has since been arrested on separate charges of molesting five boys in Mount Pleasant, S.C., near Charleston. "We regret that we did not pursue this matter further," Citadel's president, retired Lt. Gen. John Rosa and Board of Visitors Chairman Douglas Snyder said in a statement.

In the United States, despite a Constitution that mandates the separation of church and state, religion and politics have become inseparable. To lend authority to their views, presidential aspirants of both parties regularly press God into service. They know what he intends. So the claims made by Republican front-runner Mitt Romney in a recent speech at the Citadel managed to be both striking and unexceptionable. "God did not create this country to be a nation of followers," Romney announced.

2011 Dodge Durango Citadel RWD Base price: $42,645 (including destination charge) Price, as tested: $46,825 Powertrain: 5.7-liter, 16-valve V-8; five-speed automatic transmission with manual shifting Horsepower: 360 at 4,250 rpm Torque: 390 pound-feet at 4,250 rpm 0-60 acceleration: 7.3 seconds (according to Motor Trend magazine) Curb weight: 5,200 pounds Wheelbase: 119.8 inches Overall length: 199.8 inches EPA fuel economy: 14 mpg city/20 mpg highway Final thoughts: Easy to want; hard to need.

So you're in the market for a 2011 Dodge Durango SUV. Congratulations. After amassing nearly 500 miles on a top-end Citadel model recently, I can say you have great taste in vehicles. The new Durango is well-made, a good value and behaves on the road like your mother is watching. But before you sign that check, I have two questions for you. You'll be towing something big, right? Because the Durango has up to 7,400 pounds of towing capacity when equipped with a Hemi V-8, it doesn't mind having a trailer full of ponies or a Beneteau 34 sailboat hitched to its rear.

The citadel of American capitalism soon could be foreign-owned. The parent company of the New York Stock Exchange is in advanced talks to be acquired by the owner of the Frankfurt stock exchange in a deal that would create a behemoth financial-market operator valued at about $25 billion. The transaction being negotiated by NYSE Euronext and Germany's Deutsche Boerse would put the Big Board's trading floor, which became a flag-draped patriotic symbol in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, under overseas control.

Citadel Investment Group, the $13-billion hedge-fund firm run by Kenneth Griffin, will allow clients to make withdrawals from its two largest funds after freezing them last year. Chicago-based Citadel will decide each quarter whether to make payments from its Wellington and Kensington funds, Griffin said in an investor letter. Clients will be notified of any amounts available for redemption.