Howard

washington -- Mitt Romney twice emphasized his unique business background when he and eight other Republican presidential candidates faced off in a debate last week in Iowa. "I've spent the last, as I've told you, 25 years in the private sector," former Massachusetts Gov. Romney declared at one point. "I understand why jobs come and why jobs go. I've done business in 20 countries."

The Lakers cleaned out their lockers after another early playoff ricochet, but I'm still working. My editor wanted five moves that would help the Lakers, wouldn't be ridiculed by opposing general managers and would be allowed under the NBA's complicated transaction guidelines. Keep in mind that the Lakers have extremely limited purchasing power for free agents and are an old team with a bloated payroll. Put it this way: Nobody is calling General Manager Mitch Kupchak at 3 a.m., begging him to part with Metta World Peace for two first-rounders.

Hughes After Howard The Story of Hughes Aircraft Company D. Kenneth Richardson Sea Hill Press: 496 pps., $24.95

'Howard Terpning: Tribute to the Plains People' Where: Autry National Center of the American West, 4700 Western Heritage Way When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 11 a.m to 5 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays, through July 1. Tickets: $10 or $4-$6 for children, students and seniors. Information: (323) 667-2000. Theautry.org

Is Dwight Howard approaching LeBron James' villainy status? His latest proclamation that he wants to remain in Orlando through the season -- but that he doesn't want to sign a long-term deal or even an extension -- isn't sitting well with fans. Comments on a story written by the Orlando Sentinel's Josh Robbins are turning decidedly anti-Dwight. People seem to be viewing Howard as someone who is trying to have it all ways, and that he is playing team management. Yes, the Magic could keep him around and make him happy, we think.

I can understand these people who stand in line all night to have Howard Stern sign their copy of his book (Dec. 2), but I can't understand who reads the book to them. JANE P. DAVIS Sun City

What an amazing article on Coy Howard ("His Transcendent Vision" (July 17). He is one of this community's unsung treasures, and it is fitting to have such a caring piece on him and generous pictures of the wonderful Palevsky house. Fred Fisher Los Angeles Fred Fisher is the principal of Frederick Fisher and Partners, Architects.

After months of delay, President Obama on Tuesday named a cyber-security coordinator to oversee the vast task of protecting the nation's computer systems in the public and private sectors. Obama appointed Howard Schmidt, a former chief security executive at Microsoft with 31 years' experience in law enforcement and the military, to the crucial post of White House cyber-security "czar." "Howard is one of the world's leading authorities on computer security," said John Brennan, the White House counter-terrorism advisor, in a statement released -- fittingly -- by e-mail.

So, the Howard the Duck in Lucasfilm's upcoming "Howard the Duck" movie is just a man in a mask, a guy with a duck head stuck on a Sears' Junior Leisure Suit. My duck in development, the Other Howard, will waddle on his own in a fowl fiberglass body no human could fit. He'll chomp cigars, drool over "female hairless apes" and "waugh" loudly without the need to have a human body shape because some guy is inside. He is a solution to the statement, "You will believe a duck can talk."

Looks like the special-effects folks who put Howard the Duck together left off a critical part of his anatomy: Howard's got no legs. In its second weekend at the box office, "Howard" slipped 48%, taking in just $3.5 million at 1,563 theaters. In its first 10 days, the movie has managed to take in only $10.8 million. The moral of the story: Don't count your ducks until they hatch. Meanwhile, "Aliens" maintained its foothold on the No. 1 position, taking in $5.

Gilt A Novel Katherine Longshore Penguin: 416 pp., $17.99, ages 12 and up King Henry the Eighth, to six wives he was wedded. One died, one survived, two divorced, two beheaded. If there's anyone in history who personifies the treacheries of marriage, it's King Henry VIII of England, who is best known for the beheadings he inflicted during a reign of nearly 38 years. What led to such a barbaric punishment for the sexual indiscretions of his betrothed is the central theme of "Gilt," which tells the fictionalized history of wife No. 5: Catherine Howard, "the forgotten daughter of the forgotten third son of the man who had once been Duke of Norfolk," writes novelist Katherine Longshore.

Howard Terpning paints how the West was lived and lost more than 120 years ago. His subject is 19th century Native Americans, although he is not their descendant. Some of his canvases aim to capture the courage, dignity and desperation of the fight to keep their land. Many are carefully detailed depictions of the ways of life they fought to save. "Tribute to the Plains People," now at the Autry National Center of the American West in Griffith Park, is the biggest solo show of Terpning's career - a retrospective that covers 35 years and documents his standing as the acknowledged leader of a popular but not universally admired movement in which paintings become time machines into the Old West.

DECATUR, Ill. — Wearing a black fleece pullover and blue cargo pants, Howard Buffett loaded his jumpy Slovakian-born German shepherd Bolek into his Ford F-250 Super Duty and radioed his crew that he was on his way. "Beans don't do well in the cold and wet, but I'm going to plant anyway," Buffett said before climbing into the cabin of his John Deere tractor. There he pressed the "resume" button and began planting small, red soybean seeds, 180,000 to the acre. He drove hands-free thanks to a sophisticated onboard global positioning system, which alone cost $20,000.

Chandler NBA's top defender Tyson Chandler , the catalyst for the New York Knicks' defensive improvement, was voted the NBA's defensive player of the year. Chandler beat out Oklahoma City's Serge Ibaka and three-time champion Dwight Howard of Orlando to become the first Knicks player to win the award. Chandler received 311 points, including 45 first-place votes, from a panel of 121 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada.

The Democratic slugfest underway in California's 30th Congressional District is the product of two political developments of recent years: the open primary and nonpartisan redistricting. The former means that the two top finishers in the upcoming congressional race will face each other again in the fall, even if both are from the same political party; the latter has resulted in two titans of the Southern California Democratic Party having to face each other. Rep. Howard Berman and Rep. Brad Sherman are admirable public officials with long and impressive records of service.

ELDON, Iowa - Beth Howard sits at her kitchen table on a Sunday morning and pulls back the curtain to peer at a group of rosy-cheeked youths taking pictures on her front lawn. They pair off to stand side by side in the pose familiar to millions - the dour farmer with a pitchfork, the unsmiling woman beside him in front of the white house. No one notices the woman in flannel pajamas sitting inside. "People seldom know that people live here, much less that there's someone watching them from the other side of the curtain," says Howard, who rents the house made famous in Grant Wood's painting "American Gothic.

Howard Zinn, a professor, author and social activist who inspired a generation on the American left and whose book "A People's History of the United States" sold more than 1 million copies and redefined the historical role of working-class people as agents of political change, died Wednesday. He was 87. Zinn apparently had a heart attack in Santa Monica, where he was visiting friends and scheduled to speak, said his daughter, Myla Kabat-Zinn. He lived in Auburndale, Mass. Zinn's political views were shaped, in part, by his experiences as a bombardier for the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. "My father cared about so many important issues," Kabat-Zinn said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

Re "Dean Says Democrats Will Make Schiavo Case an Election Issue," April 16: The outrageous attack on an independent judiciary by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and his followers will certainly win some new votes for the Democrats in 2006, but Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean is not a credible spokesman for this issue. Bush was elected by the moderate center, which rejects both the Deaniac left and the creationist right. It's time to resurrect Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.

"HOJO to Don Draper: Sorry about the pool, your next stay is on us. " That's the word from Howard Johnson after the "Mad Men" character had a motel meltdown on Sunday's episode of the AMC TV series. The getaway he planned with his young bride Megan to a fictional HoJo's in upstate New York went super sour after he arrived to find the pool was closed. "We've all been there," says the hotel's statement sent Tuesday. "You plan a weekend away only to check in to your hotel and find that a much desired amenity - the hotel pool - is closed.

This is the 11th story in a series looking at local athletes as they try to make the Olympic team. Chasing Olympic medals can put a real strain on a family. Take Tony Gunawan as an example. He'll be playing badminton in England, eight time zones from home, when his youngest son turns 2 in August. And while he's away, his wife, Eti, will have to teach the private - and expensive - lessons Gunawan gives at the San Gabriel Valley Badminton Club. It will mean less sleep for her but lots of overtime for the family baby sitter.